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.
