Leeds United moved into the top two in the Championship, albeit before some of their rivals have played, with a 2-1 win over Watford at Elland Road on Tuesday night.
The Whites made an unbelievable start to the game as goals from Largie Ramazani and Brenden Aaronson had them two goals to the good inside seven minutes.
Watford pulled a goal back shortly after the break, as Kwadwo Baah reacted quickly to a deflected ball in the box to fire past Illan Meslier, but they were unable to find an equaliser in West Yorkshire.
There were a number of impressive performers across the pitch for Daniel Farke’s side at Elland Road and one of them was attacking midfielder Aaronson.
Brenden Aaronson's performance in numbers
The USA international ended a run of four games without a direct goal contribution in the Championship when he found the back of the net in the seventh minute.
A few minutes after Dan Bachmann had fumbled Ramazani’s strike from distance into his own net, the Hornets goalkeeper parried a shot straight back into the danger area and the former RB Salzburg man was on hand to produce a composed finish to make it 2-0.
The American ace also showcased his creativity throughout the game, with five chances created, but also had some poor moments on the ball, failing with four of his six attempted dribbles.
Aaronson did struggle slightly out of possession, losing seven of his 12 duels, but the goal he scored, and his quality creativity made up for that.
He was not the real star of the show for Leeds on the night, though, as central midfielder Ao Tanaka was even better than him against the Hornets.
Ao Tanaka's performance in numbers
The Japan international has been handed a chance to play a run of games in midfield after injuries to Ilia Gruev and Ethan Ampadu, and is grasping his opportunity with both hands.
Tanaka provided a metronomic presence in the middle of the park to run the game for the hosts, helping his side to progress play quickly and end the game with 24 shots to Watford’s nine.
The midfielder completed 93% of his attempted passes, taking 77 touches in total, and this shows that he was reliable on the ball throughout the match, rarely giving the ball away.
Touches
77
Pass accuracy
93%
Long passes completed
6/8
Duels won
9/11
Tackles + interceptions
7
As you can see in the table above, Tanaka was also incredibly combative and strong out of possession to win the ball back for his side by cutting out opposition attacks regularly.
He ended the match with seven tackles and interceptions and nine out of 11 duels won, which shows that Watford’s midfielders and attackers struggled to get the better of him throughout the match.
Therefore, the summer signing from Fortuna Dusseldorf was the real star of the show and even better than Aaronson, because he combined quality in possession with strength off the ball to put on a masterclass for Leeds.
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