I wanted to do a thread on Rodrigo as I've been seeing a few tweets about him which I don't understand. I think it's fair to question if we can accommodate him in midfield in certain games, but I've seen people saying that he doesn't contribute enough and I can't accept that.

For the second goal on saturday, Rodrigo was robbed too easily. Receiving the ball back to goal, he's looking to spin Hojbjerg with his first touch, which is a move he goes for *a lot*. In this case, the Dane sees him coming and gets his leg in front to force the turnover.

This was perhaps the wrong moment to attempt this, but it looks so much worse because it ends in a goal. There are other reasons why this ended up as a goal: Struijk dived in on Kane, Dallas didn't pick up Son's run and then the execution from Spurs forwards was spot on.

If the turn came off, Leeds would have been through the Spurs midfield with Rodrigo running at an exposed defence. It's a high risk/high reward move, but that's the kind of player Rodrigo is and that aggressive first touch has been key at other times.

In this case, he probably should have been aware of Hojbjerg's momentum and the danger of losing the ball in that position and used his body to protect the ball. I found two examples of Rodrigo receiving the ball with a clever first touch which have led to important goals.

Firstly, Bamford's winner at Bramall Lane. Rodrigo dropping off the Sheffield United defence and then turning with his first touch allow him to shift it quickly to Harrison, who suddenly has time to line up the cross. https://twitter.com/LUFC/status/1310323574771716097?s=20

Even there he almost showed too much of the ball to the opponent and gave it away but just managed to get the pass away. This emphasises the high risk/high reward even more. Had he been a split second later to the pass, Leeds lose the ball and could be countered.

The second example is his goal v Newcastle. The video cuts his actual first touch so I've made a gif of it. Many played would have nodded that ball back to Mateusz Klich, which was by far the easiest option. Instead, he turned away from pressure whilst controlling on his chest.

Notably, on this occasion it meant he was going away from goal, but the key is that his first touch is always intentional to find where the space is. This allowed him to then look for Harrison and the rest is poetry, even if the pass is overhit! https://twitter.com/LUFC/status/1339508155085172736?s=20

As I said at the beginning of this thread, I share concerns about him and Klich together in midfield in games where there is a real threat of counters and I think the squad would be best served by another midfield option that is more of a true 8 than Rodrigo is.

However, I feel that Rodrigo is so clever in the opposition half that I'd want him playing the majority of the time. If anything, I feel that Klich needs to recognise that he's playing with Rodrigo and not overcommit himself because then when we lose the ball neither can get back

The first goal against Man Utd is the prime example here, as they both charged ahead of the ball (as did KP) meaning that when the ball was lost the entire Leeds midfield was bypassed instantly. It's clear that isn't Rodrigo's fault.

So back to the thing that set me on this thread: does Rodrigo contribute enough? For me, he's a key player in the majority of Leeds' wins this season, the second half of Burnley and the Everton game being two occasions he didn't really contribute.

I'd argue that he's our best player from a technical standpoint and I'd want him on the field as much as possible, even against the big teams. We might have been pumped by Man Utd and Spurs with him playing but he was the game-changing sub against Man City and led our counters.

If we are going to play KP, Klich, Rodrigo in a 3 against the top 4/6, I think it just needs a slight tweak in deciding when to commit everybody forwards and perhaps not trying to turn with the ball when surrounded inside one's own half... Long story short: Rodrigo is ace.