Lee Sobot discusses the the current form of Leeds United’s Joe Rothwell.
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00:00Joe Rothall, he had a good game, didn't he?
00:04A lot of people were saying he was man of the match,
00:06which, as we already discussed off-camera, is quite surprising
00:09given he's a central midfielder.
00:11But you thought he was certainly a stand-out player in that game.
00:13Yeah, definitely. It's quite ironic and funny the way it's worked out.
00:17Obviously, you've got your two first-choice midfielders out,
00:19Ethan Empadu, club captain, and Ilya Gruev,
00:22who would be the two main starters in those two centre midfielders' positions.
00:25And yet, possibly, the two centre midfielders are the two best players
00:30because I think Joe Rothall was most people's idea of man of the match,
00:32and if it wasn't him, it was maybe Alton Aker.
00:34And they're the two centre midfielders, so they've really stepped up to the plate.
00:38I've seen a few people say this, and I can kind of agree with it,
00:41that actually maybe having those two in centre midfield
00:44adds a bit more impetus and makes them a bit more attacking, really.
00:49I can see that. Empadu and Gruev are obviously fantastic players,
00:52but they are slightly more defensive.
00:55They'll be more solid with those two, you would think,
00:58but then again, they were pretty solid against Sheffield United,
01:00you've got to be said.
01:01But those two definitely feel like a little bit more going forward,
01:05and Rothall was just great on and off the ball,
01:08really pressing down whenever he could off the ball,
01:11really adding some vigour going forward on the ball,
01:14some very, very neat passes.
01:15Obviously, he got the assist for the goal.
01:17Whether that was quite by design to put the corner in that low, I don't know,
01:20but it doesn't matter, it worked.
01:22Very, very good performance from him.
01:24I think nine out of ten we gave him in the player ratings,
01:26which sort of says it all, really.
01:28Very, very good indeed.
01:29That said, it doesn't sort of hide or disguise the fact
01:32of how light leads are in centre midfield,
01:35and you do feel like if you had one injury to either of those two,
01:38then you really, that could have a really,
01:41I'm not sure about disastrous, but it'd be very, very difficult
01:44to sort of navigate that,
01:45because obviously then you really are looking around.
01:47Obviously, Charlie Crews is a very good, young, talented midfielder,
01:50but you'd be really throwing him in the deep end,
01:52and I don't think he's quite at Archie Gray levels yet,
01:54that sort of thing.
01:55Obviously, in terms of a youngster coming through,
01:58it's a different ball game with Charlie Crews.
02:00Obviously, they're going a bit more patient with him.
02:02He's a good young player waiting in the wings, though,
02:04and then you'd probably be looking at other people stepping into midfield.
02:06I mean, Isaac Schmidt could probably play there.
02:09Pascal's played holding midfield before,
02:11but if you were to lose one of those two when Ampadu and Grueva are out,
02:14then that would be a problem, and that's why, basically,
02:16Daniel Farker has admitted they are looking at the free agent market.
02:19So, it's kind of watch this space to see if anything happens with that.
02:22I think he's basically said that the ideal would be to get somebody in
02:26who can play centre midfield, but also play a centre-back,
02:29because then you've got sort of covering both those positions,
02:32because obviously you've got to remember Ampadu also is an option at centre-half.
02:35So, yes, two aspects to it, really.
02:37Number one, a very good performance from Rothwell,
02:39and you should remember with him as well,
02:40he hasn't actually had that many starts.
02:42I mean, I think that was only his second league start of the season,
02:44and last season, he only had seven league starts, I think it was.
02:48So, I know he's 29 and stuff.
02:50I mean, he's not that ancient, is he?
02:51So, obviously, he's still got plenty of years ahead of him,
02:53but equally, not just that, when he hasn't had that many starts,
02:57he's probably going to continue to get better, which is quite exciting, really.