Co-host of the Talking Shutt podcast, known as Wraggy, has been discussing Leeds United’s Tyler Roberts during a recent edition of the show.
The 21-year-old has made four appearances in the Premier League so far this season for Marcelo Bielsa’s side with a couple of those coming in the attacking midfield position (as per Transfermarkt).
The Whites signed Rodrigo from Valencia during the summer transfer window for a club-record fee of £26m (as per BBC Sport) but the Spaniard so far, has started just 25% of the club’s league fixtures and the podcaster believes it would be “strange” if he continues to be overlooked in favour of Roberts, who has started the last two Premier League games. Here is what he had to say:
“[Tyler Roberts is] just not making the same impact on the game as Rodrigo. Bielsa knows more than us, so surely he sees that as well, that’s why he’s making that substitution [Rodrigo for Roberts] so I would find it strange if he carried on starting him and every time Rodrigo comes on, outperforms him, we carried on doing that.”
Has Tyler Roberts been underperfroming?
Yes
No
Leeds signed Roberts from West Bromwich Albion’s U23 squad back in the 2018 January transfer window for a fee of £2.57 million. Since then, the Welshman has gone on to make 59 appearances for Leeds in which he has managed to score seven goals and provide seven assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Wraggy’s comments regarding Tyler Roberts…
It’s clear that the podcaster feels Rodrigo should be selected ahead of Roberts and given the Welshman’s average performance rating in the Premier League this season stands at a somewhat underwhelming 6.2/10 (as per WhoScored), you can understand where he may be coming from.
The Yorkshire-based club take on Wolverhampton Wanderers at Elland Road on Monday night and taking all of the above into consideration, it will be interesting to see with whom Marcelo Bielsa opts to go with.