Pablo Hernandez has been a key part of Leeds United ever since he joined in 2016, and has been rewarded with another contract extension on Tuesday. 

Hernandez signed under former manager Garry Monk and has played under four different managers in his tenure at Leeds, with Monk, Thomas Christiansen, Paul Heckingbottom, and now Marcelo Bielsa taking charge of the team.

One thing that has been constant in a time of huge change at Elland Road over the past three-and-a-half years is that Hernandez has been instrumental in what the Whites have looked to achieve each season. At 34-years-old, Hernandez is showing very little signs of ageing, as last season was his most productive of his long career.

There has been doubts over whether Hernandez can continue his tremendous impact at Leeds for much longer as he gets older, and this season started by Hernandez swiftly putting that debate to bed with a dazzling performance away to Bristol City in which he scored a stunning opener and provided the second for Patrick Bamford with great footwork in the penalty area.

Hernandez has had a lengthy injury layoff recently, though, with muscular problems keeping him sidelined for six weeks, ever since he had to be withdrawn in the 1-1 draw with Derby County back in mid-September. Leeds sorely missed his creative spark in midfield in the meantime and will be so grateful for his return.

With the Spaniard signing a new contract this week keeping him at the club until the summer of 2022, we take a closer look at his time at Leeds to see whether he warranted another new contract…

Hernandez signed for Leeds at the beginning of the 2016/17 season so this season is his fourth at the club whilst being one of the first names on the team sheet all that time. This has allowed Hernandez to clock up a staggering 11,144 minutes for the Whites over that time, in which he has scored 29 goals and registered 27 assists.

While there are players at this level with more goals or more assists than him, there will not be a player who has both more goals and more assists than him in that time, especially at 34 years-of-age. What makes his numbers in front of goal more staggering is the quality of each of them, with his two assists showing that this season.

The first assist was what was mentioned previously, when he worked his way into the Bristol penalty area past two players before crossing to Bamford. His second was arguably better against Stoke City when his first-time driven pass over at least 30 yards fell perfectly into Stuart Dallas’ path on the penalty spot, for him to tuck home. His whole performance against Stoke was something to marvel as he had a major part to play in all three of Leeds’ goals that game.

Hernandez’s main strength is, of course, his passing ability and over his time at Leeds, he has averaged passing accuracy of 75.4%. While this again is a stat that will be topped by some players, it has to be said that Hernandez is playing in a role where he is tasked at unlocking the most stern of defences regularly so he has to take risks to create chances.

To still achieve 75.4% accuracy is remarkable considering most passes are forward and intended to be a key pass.

Over his Leeds career, the former Spain international has obviously spent most of his time trying to penetrate defences, meaning he has amassed a total of 325 touches inside the opposition box, which averages at 2.62 per game. With under three touches per game inside the box on average, it makes his goals and assists tally seem more impressive when considering he must then pass and shoot from range a lot of the time.

With Hernandez’s age, there has come a loss of pace that is typical with most ageing footballers, however, his ability to still manage runs throughout games is great, as he makes an average of 1.93 progressive runs per game.

It might be a struggle at times for the midfielder to drive past two or three players to spark a blistering counter-attack, but he has shown, with his experience, when to time his runs perfectly to either deceive an opponent or use his own momentum to breeze past defenders.

It may be a risk in most cases to offer a two-year contract extension to a player who is hitting his 35th birthday this season, but in Hernandez’s case, Leeds simply had to tie him down with his impact still there for everyone to see at the moment. He will most likely return to the starting lineup at the weekend against Luton Town, eager to make up for lost time and prove why Leeds gave him the new deal.