Leeds United moved to the top of the Championship table on Tuesday night with a fantastic 3-1 win over Middlesbrough at a noisy Elland Road.
The Whites are now two points clear of Sheffield United in the division, before the Blades play on Wednesday night, and will certainly end the gameweek in the automatic promotion places.
Wilfried Gnonto, Dan James, and Brenden Aaronson scored the goals for the hosts to secure a fantastic result against Boro, who had beaten Leeds 3-0 at Elland Road in the League Cup back in August.
One of the star performers for the West Yorkshire outfit was the scorer of the second, and arguably best, goal of the night – Wales international James.
Dan James' electric performance against Middlesbrough
The rapid former Manchester United winger was selected to play on the right flank for the Whites and was involved in all three goals for Daniel Farke’s side.
James burst down the right wing and produced a teasing cross into the box that Seny Dieng in the Boro goal made a complete mess of, allowing Gnonto to tap the ball into a virtually empty net.
The 27-year-old star then scored his fourth goal of the Championship season in superb style, firing into the far top corner from the edge of the box to put Leeds 2-1 up after Max Wober’s unfortunate own goal had made it 1-1.
James played a big role in the third and final goal with his driving run on the counter-attack leading to a pass to Ao Tanaka in the box, which allowed the midfielder to square the ball to Aaronson to score.
There was another Leeds player who was just as good as the Wales international, though, and that was Joe Rothwell, who has proven himself to be Farke’s most underrated player.
Performance in Numbers
Want data and stats? Football FanCast's Performance in Numbers series provides you with the latest match analysis from across Europe.
Leeds' most underrated player
Rothwell has been unfortunate, in a sense, to be playing alongside an incredibly talented and popular midfielder in Tanaka, who won the club’s Player of the Month award for October and November.
Whilst the Bournemouth loanee will, surely, love to play alongside such a quality player, it does mean that the majority of the acclaim goes the way of the summer signing from Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Rothwell’s performance against Middlesbrough was a reminder, however, that he is just as important to the team with his terrific displays in the middle of the park, with LeedsLive handing him and James a player rating of 8/10 each.
Minutes
89
Key passes
2
Pass accuracy
92%
Duels won
6/8
Dribbled past
0x
As you can see in the table above, the Englishman was a midfield metronome in the middle of the park with his impressive pass success rate, whilst he was also superb out of possession.
Meanwhile, Tanaka also completed 92% of his attempted passes but lost nine of his 15 ground duels and was dribbled past three times, which shows that Rothwell offered more solidity defensively.
The Englishman tops the team for key passes (1.6) per game and ranks fifth for passes completed (39.9) per game, which speaks to his progressive use of the ball for Leeds.
Leeds could sign a "ridiculous" £5m star to be their next Archie Gray
Leeds United have been linked with an interest in the talented teenage sensation.
1 ByDan EmeryDec 9, 2024
He is key to the way the teams turns their possession into dangerous attacks with his progressive passes, as shown by his impressive number of key passes, and that – along with his showing against Boro – is why he is, arguably, the most underrated star in the team alongside his more heralded midfield partner.