Leeds United’s Pablo Hernandez played for 45 minutes in the 2-0 win against Barnsley U23’s, as he continued to work his way back to fitness.
Hernandez has played 10 times in the Championship so far this season, however, the 34-year-old could only manage nine minutes in the Peacocks last game against Blackburn Rovers and hasn’t played a full 90 minutes since 15th September against Barnsley.
The Spaniard is lively in the midfield, having 2.2 shots, 2.2 key passes and completing 48.9 passes on average per game. However, Hernandez hasn’t scored in his last nine league games, which was a goal against Nottingham Forrest in a 1-1 draw.
Playing for the U23’s should be looked at as a very good thing as it shows that Leeds are keen for the 34-year-old to return to full fitness as soon as possible.
When returning he’s likely to face competition from Helder Costa who plays in the same position as him, however, Costa has played 16 league games but has failed to score a single goal so far this season, also creating just one assist across 802 minutes of football.
Indeed, when taking the Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee’s passing statistics into consideration as well, there would be an argument to have the Spaniard in the side over him as well. According to WhoScored, the 25-year-old has managed to achieve just 0.5 key passes, 0.7 shots per game and makes an average of just 14.6 passes per game (with 77.7% being successful).
Verdict
You can’t really make a case for Costa to start over Hernandez, although maybe being nine years younger at 25 years old could be one. However, despite his age, the Spanish midfielder is still playing to a high enough level and should definitely be started over the Portuguese man.