Marc Roca has looked poor lately and should lose his place in Leeds’ starting XI because of it…
Leeds United’s struggling form has seen them slip into the relegation zone in recent weeks, as results for their fellow strugglers have started to pick up.
The likes of Everton and Bournemouth earning unexpected victories does little to offset their albeit impressive point gained against the high-flying Brighton and Hove Albion, as they still fall further behind.
There are numerous factors that are contributing to their abysmal season, with Javi Gracia desperately scrambling to find solutions to all of them in time to save them from a return to the Championship.
Although they are already set to be without Tyler Adams today due to injury, perhaps the Spaniard could look to completely refresh his midfield in favor of some youthful exuberance. Whilst the American has shone and his absence will be missed, to remove Marc Roca as well would hardly change much given how he has underperformed of late.
Brought in from Bayern Munich in the summer, his experience was expected to be invaluable in the engine room as a metronomic presence that would allow them to dictate the play. That has not been the case, and soon he must lose his place because of these consistently poor displays.
Who will play in midfield for Leeds?
Journalist Phil Hay offered a glimpse into what Gracia might be thinking for this clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers, as he relayed the following information on Twitter:
“Gracia says Darko Gyabi and Archie Gray are midfielders he’ll think about using while Adams is out.”
Whilst this could at face value be seen as a sole replacement for their one absentee, given none of Roca’s past five displays has surpassed a 6.8 rating, he too could be in the firing line.
In fact, his performance in that aforementioned draw with the Seagulls was particularly abhorrent, as he earned a 6.1 rating underpinned by just one duel won all game as he touched the ball just 42 times (via Sofascore).
Only in January had journalist Beren Cross slammed the £50k-per-week dud too, as he spoke on the LeedsLive Facebook stream after their FA Cup exit:
“Roca, I felt faded. I thought he had a pretty good first half, Marc Roca. Certainly not as refined in his tackling as [Tyler] Adams. But he got about the pitch well, put his foot in, and was a disrupter to Brentford when they were trying to build attacks.
“But in the second half, he started to look quite leggy and tired and made some quite tired challenges which left Leeds in the lurch at times.”
This was a sentiment journalist Jonny Buchan echoed, who lambasted the set piece takers, namely Jack Harrison and the Spaniard, for their “unforgivable” poor deliveries, when speaking on BBC Radio Leeds [28 February 2023, 25min].
With the media clearly clocking on to his consistently poor showings, surely Gracia will be too. It might be a bold move, but there is no point relying on experience when the quality is so clearly lacking.
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