Joe Rothwell made his first major contribution to Leeds United’s pursuit of promotion to the Premier League on Tuesday night when he replaced Ilia Gruev inside 20 minutes at Norwich.
Rothwell, 29, is still yet to start in the Championship for Leeds after arriving at Elland Road on loan from Bournemouth in the summer. But he did start the 3-0 loss to Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup.
He has also featured in all eight Championship games as a sub, but on Tuesday night he got more than 25 minutes for the first time. The on-loan ace replaced the injured Ilia Gruev after just 20 minutes.
Bulgaria star Gruev picked up an injury after it had been confirmed that Ethan Ampadu would be out until the new year with a knee injury. It saw Rothwell partner fellow new signing Ao Tanaka in central midfield.
A combination that has not yet been tested, but the duo did well enough when put together on Tuesday night. Rothwell spoke after the match of playing with Tanaka, stating that they’ve lost defensive nous.
Joe Rothwell shares what Daniel Farke told him before coming on
It was a crazy start to the match as Norwich took the lead from the spot after a foul from Joe Rodon, with Josh Sargent getting up to score. Largie Ramazani equalised but the game could easily have been a 3-3.
A game that saw two possession-based sides try to hit each other on the counter and eventually, a fair result. Rothwell spoke to LUTV after the game and shared what Farke told him before he entered the fray.
“A bit of a basketball game. They attacked, we attacked. The boss just said when I came on to try and get some control in the game, calm it down. It was a bit hectic, I felt like we did that at stages,” Rothwell said.
What are Daniel Farke’s midfield options against Sunderland?
The obvious choice is going to be Tanaka and Rothwell, replacing Gruev and Ampadu. But, by Rothwell’s own admission, they are very attack-minded midfielders and Leeds will lack that defensive screen.
Farke’s options in central midfield ahead of Sunderland:
- Joe Rothwell
- Ao Tanaka
- Brenden Aaronson
- Pascal Struijk
- Charlie Crew
- Sam Chambers
They did well enough against Norwich but Farke may want to beef that midfield up. Perhaps, he could move Brenden Aaronson deeper and play the American and Rothwell as two no.8’s in front of Tanaka.
Pascal Struijk can obviously play as a holding midfielder. But Leeds are lacking in centre-back depth at the moment with Wober injured. It might be that Farke ends up handing a debut to Charlie Crew on Friday.
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