When Rodrigo was substituted at half-time in the 3-0 loss to Aston Villa in Jesse Marsch's first home game as Leeds United manager, it was easy to imagine the Spaniard's season fizzling out. Instead, Marsch saw an opportunity to light a fire under Leeds' record signing and instead of dropping him from the starting eleven, the American had a heart-to-heart with the former Valencia striker and challenged him to step up as a leader of the team.
Rodrigo was installed as a member of Marsch' 'leadership council' as the foreign representative now that the team has built up a more cosmopolitan feel since promotion to the Premier League. The forward has responded positively to that and has looked a man possessed in the games since.
It was Rodrigo that scored the opening goal of the Marsch era, as he scored the opener in the 2-1 win over Norwich City. Notably, he ran to the subs bench in his celebration and ensured that the whole team celebrated together. He was substituted on the hour mark in that particular game due to some pain in his thigh and the team got noticeably worse without his creativity and began to shrink backwards. It wasn't too surprising when Norwich then equalised in the 90th minute, though fortunately Leeds found the winner through Joe Gelhardt in the 94th minute.
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Although the Wolves game was extremely chaotic and Leeds found themselves deservedly 2-0 down before the game-changing red card for Raul Jimenez, Rodrigo was key in the comeback. It was he and Luke Ayling who were seen to be commanding their teammates, sensing that there was an opportunity to rock Wolves. When Rodrigo scored the equaliser - the first time he's scored consecutive goals all season - he celebrated with wild abandon as he picked up a yellow card for diving into the away end.
Now that Rodrigo has played a key role in two results that put some breathing room between the Whites and relegation danger, the next step is for him to maintain some consistency. Unfortunately, there have been several false dawns during his time in Yorkshire and Leeds need this not to be another one if they are to finish the season without any further dalliance with the bottom three.
When Rodrigo first arrived at the club, there was an expectation that he would knock Patrick Bamford out of the number nine position, given his pedigree as 'Spain's number nine'. However, Bamford started the season in excellent form and Marcelo Bielsa utilised his new signing as an attacking midfielder instead. In his early performances, he impressed in this role, receiving the ball on the half-turn and creating great chances for his teammates. His 45 minutes against Sheffield United in the opening month of the season seemed like a taste of the quality he would deliver over the rest of the season.
Instead, he suffered from injuries which halted his momentum and when he returned he never seemed to get up to speed with Bielsa's man-marking system. This made him a weak-point and opponents began to dribble through the middle of the pitch when he played.
As the season reached its end, he made a series of cameos as a striker, scoring superb goals against Burnley and Tottenham before netting the opener against West Bromwich Albion on the final day of the season. That encouraged fans that he could fit into the system better with a full pre-season under his belt.
Unfortunately, that was another false dawn, as Rodrigo was still used as a midfielder rather than a striker, even with Bamford out for almost the entire season with injuries. In midfield, the old issues with man-marking persisted and he wasn't producing the goods in terms of goals and assists to cover for that issue.
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Now under Marsch, Rodrigo has been liberated from his man-marking duties and aside from the first half against Villa, this seems to have helped him greatly as he has been one of Leeds' best players in each of the other three games that the American has managed the Whites. In terms of ability, it's always been the case that Rodrigo is one of the best players at Elland Road and that is reflected in his price tag of almost £30million.
If he can continue to show the form to back that up, Leeds will have a great chance to deliver results in their next games against Southampton, Watford and Crystal Palace. Six points from those three games will take them 35 points, which has been enough for safety in the last five seasons. Rodrigo on song gives them the best opportunity to hit that mark before the tough final run-in.
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