Pablo Hernandez will be hoping to make his Leeds United return in Saturday’s game against Birmingham at Elland Road.
Since signing for Leeds back in 2016, Hernandez has proven to consistently be one of Leeds’ best performers. Having made 123 appearances for the Whites, the Spaniard has scored 27 goals and registered 31 assists.
Reports from Football Insider have emerged this week that Hernandez is set to open talks over a new contract with Leeds, with his current deal running until the summer of 2021. Hernandez has been a key player throughout his Leeds career, constantly relied upon to help Leeds push towards promotion.
Leeds have moved to tie down several key players recently, with Stuart Dallas, Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling, and Kalvin Phillips all receiving new deals this season. Hernandez appears to be one of the next players the club are keen to secure the future of.
During Leeds’ 1-1 draw with Derby back in September, Hernandez sustained a muscular injury which has kept him out of Leeds’ last three games, where they’ve won once and lost twice. This absence has outlined Leeds’ reliance on the midfielder, and how urgent they are to see him return, with Leeds’ attacking creativity suffering as a result of him not playing.
With a return from injury and potential new contract on the horizon for Hernandez, we take a look at the midfielder’s season so far in numbers…
Pablo Hernandez has played a total of 983 minutes so far this season, which would have been more had he not missed three games through injury in the past month. Before his injury, Hernandez had scored two goals and registered two assists whilst starring in a handful of games for the Whites.
Hernandez has proven in his time at Leeds that he is not only creative passing the ball, but has an efficient end-product, whether it be assisting or scoring goals.
In terms of his passing ability, we are now into the Spaniard’s key assets. Plying his trade in Spain for Valencia around the time of their international dominance, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Hernandez has a brilliant eye for a pass. This is something that has only developed with his age, with many arguing that his time at Leeds has seen Hernandez play some of his best football.
The stats back up this aspect of his play, as Hernandez has averaged 76.9% passing accuracy in the league this season and 3.66 successful crosses per game. While these are not the highest numbers in the league for those categories, it should be noted that Hernandez’s role in Bielsa’s side is mainly played in the final third against teams defending deep, so to find teammates with a pass so efficiently is remarkable.
Another problem many footballers face as they move into the later years is their loss of pace and therefore the ability to beat a man. Hernandez is showing no sign of this being an issue with 6.04 successful dribbles per game, proving that you don’t need electric pace to beat an opponent but execution, movement and trickery are more important.