Leeds United

Appleton heaps praise on Hernadnez

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Image for Appleton heaps praise on Hernadnez

Leicester’s caretaker manager Michael Appleton has praised Leeds United playmaker Pablo Hernandez after his performance against his side.

The 32-year-old put in a solid display on Tuesday night, but was unable to prevent the Whites losing 3-1 away to Leicester in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

Hernadnez opened the scoring for Leeds in the 26th minute as he unleashed a brilliant long-range effort that cannoned in off the underside of the cross bar.

The attacking midfielder captained the Yorkshire giants and the senior player was certainly his team’s most creative player in the final third.

However, the quality of the Premier League side eventually won out as Kelechi Iheanacho, Islam Slimani and Riyad Mahrez scored for the hosts.

Temporary Leicester boss Appleton singled out Hernandez from the opposition and bigged him up after his goal.

“They got the goal and a good goal it was. It was a good finish by a good player,” Appleton said, as quoted by Leicester’s official Twitter account.

Hernandez is considered an important player in Thomas Christiansen’s squad and was Leeds’ best player on Tuesday night against the Foxes.

However, he is not a guaranteed starter this season and will hope his mid-week display will have helped his cause.

The attacker usually plays in the number 10 role, but can also be used in either wide position.

He has featured in 12 of the 13 league matches so far this season, but has only completed the full 90 minutes in five of those games.

OPINION

Hernandez was the standout Leeds player at the King Power Stadium and showed that he still has the quality to performance against Premier League opposition. The creative maestro can still play an important role for the Whites this season in the hunt for promotion even if he doesn’t start every game. He and teammate Samuel Saiz are two of the most creative players in the Championship, who could rip most teams apart if they are both on form. Hernandez is certainly still good enough to be a top-flight player and the Elland Road faithful should be grateful to have him.

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