Anton Stach sublime, Brenden Aaronson has rare stinker – Leeds player ratings vs Aston Villa
Leeds were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw with Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday.
Daniel Farke made nine changes to his Leeds team that scraped past Birmingham City in the FA Cup last Sunday, with the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Karl Darlow returning to the starting XI.
Leeds enjoyed an excellent first half display at Villa Park, with Calvert-Lewin in particular having a lot of joy down the middle of the pitch, before a superb Anton Stach free-kick rightly had the visitors in front at the break.
The second half required Leeds to dig in and show their defensive qualities, as Villa dominated the ball, but couldn’t find a way through the Whites’ well-organised rearguard.
That was until Tammy Abraham popped up in the 88th minute to equalise for the home side, dealing Leeds a crushing blow as the Whites will no doubt feel they’d earned the right to take three points from the game.
- Read more: Soccer Saturday studio in rare collective moment thanks to Anton Stach’s Leeds brilliance
Anton Stach’s goal deserved a Leeds win vs Aston Villa
Having suffered a hip injury following Leeds’ 4-0 defeat to Arsenal on 31 January, Stach made his return to the Whites lineup on Saturday in the West Midlands.
The 27-year-old didn’t miss a beat either, with his performance made even more impressive given he was operating on the right flank, which isn’t a natural position for him.
However, the German took to the task with ease, making some valuable contributions at both ends of the pitch, as he showcased his versatile side to his game in very impressive fashion.
And his free-kick that caught out Emi Martinez was good enough to win any game of football, and it’s a shame that didn’t happen in this case.
Stach’s performance on the right will give Farke confidence that he can press on with playing him there if he so wishes, and that could open up more opportunities for the likes of Sean Longstaff and Ao Tanaka in the middle.
He was eventually replaced with 83 minutes on the clock, as Longstaff entered the fray for the closing stages of the afternoon.
Brenden Aaronson has rare off day vs Villa
There weren’t too many Leeds players who didn’t put in a good performance against Villa, but one of those who didn’t was Brenden Aaronson.
The American international has been enjoying an impressive season in the Premier League, and has emerged as one of Leeds’ real surprise packages of the campaign.
It was for this reason that his performance against Villa was all the more notable for the wrong reasons, as the 25-year-old simply couldn’t get into the game.
Replaced after 73 minutes for Lukas Nmecha, Aaronson, as per Sofascore, took only 33 touches in the game and made just one progressive carry up the pitch.
Aaronson also gave the ball away 10 times, and was unable to register a single effort on the Villa goal.
The American has earned the right to have the odd off day this season, and he will no doubt remain a key part of Farke’s starting XI between now and the end of the campaign.
Leeds player ratings
Karl Darlow – 7
Jayden Bogle – 7
James Justin – 7
Joe Rodon – 6
Pascal Struijk – 7
Gabriel Gudmundsson – 7
Anton Stach – 8
Ethan Ampadu – 7
Ilia Gruev – 5
Brenden Aaronson – 5
Dominic Calvert-Lewin – 7
Subs
Jaka Bijol (for Gudmundsson, 46) – 5
Lukas Nmecha (for Aaronson, 73) – 5
Sean Longstaff (for Stach, 83) – N/A
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