Ben Parker has told LS11 that Leo Hjelde was fantastic for Leeds United on Wednesday in their Carabao Cup loss to Wolves, with the centre-back labelled a beast following his performance.
It has been a difficult start to the campaign for Hjelde. He had only made one appearance for the first-team at the start of the season.
The Norwegian has been sidelined for a number of weeks. But he made his return last night, starting alongside Diego Llorente at the heart of the Leeds backline at Molineux.
Leo Hjelde was fantastic
Ultimately, Jesse Marsch’s side were knocked out by a late goal. However, several of the youngsters involved gave a very good account of themselves.
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Sonny Perkins was arguably Leeds’ best player. Meanwhile, Mateo Joseph and Darko Gyabi shone on their first-team debuts.
But Parker was keen to ensure that Hjelde’s display did not go unnoticed.
“Leo Hjelde at centre-half, we haven’t really spoken about him, I thought he was fantastic,” he told LS11. “Not played a lot of football recently, had the appendix operation, come in and just looked like a beast.
“His passing was good. He was strong, he was physical. You forget how young Leo is. So for him to come in and play like he did, well done to Leo.”
It does appear that there is an opportunity for Hjelde to force his way into the side on a more regular basis.
Marsch’s first-choice backline right now appears to consist of Rasmus Kristensen, Robin Koch, Liam Cooper and Pascal Struijk.
Hjelde, like Struijk, can play at centre-back or left-back. And there are plenty of fans who would have the 19-year-old ahead of Junior Firpo in the pecking order on the left.
It is also probably fair to say that he outshone Llorente at Wolves. So if either Cooper or Koch need taking out of the side, Marsch can be confident about using him.
Of course, Wolves are not the most impressive side going forward. So it is important to not get carried away. But any concerns about how Hjelde would get on upon his return from injury have emphatically been put to bed.