Leeds United are closing in on their third summer signing as Marc Roca looks set to arrive from Bayern Munich. The Whites have already bagged Brenden Aaronson and Rasmus Kristensen from Red Bull Salzburg after identifying the pair as two that look capable of playing a key role under Jesse Marsch’s next season and it seems as though they have another in Roca.
A defensive midfielder by trade, the Spaniard certainly fills a gaping hole within Leeds’ squad after finding themselves short of options in the middle of the park at times last year. They were forced to use a handful of different midfield combinations due a series of injuries, but the hope is Roca will be able to offer some consistency in the role moving forward.
The 25-year-old is fresh from winning the Bundesliga title with Bayern and although he made just nine league appearances throughout the campaign, that shouldn’t be a cause for concern. In fact, he has been highly thought of at the Allianz Arena, it just so happens that he is behind three of the best midfielders in the world in Julian Nagelsmann’s pecking order in Joshua Kimmich, Corentin Tolisso and Leon Goretzka.
Read more: Marc Roca deal edges closer as midfielder 'arrives for Leeds United medical'
Roca also started the campaign with an ankle ligament injury which probably didn’t assist his pursuit for game time and he had to wait until November before making his first appearance in a Champions League group stage game against Dynamo Kyiv. He came off the bench a couple of weeks later in a 3-0 win over Barcelona, before getting a run in the Bundesliga line-up, making four starts for the German giants between December and January.
His stats last season make for positive reading, too, albeit they came while playing for a hugely dominant side who won the league at a canter and scored 97 goals throughout the campaign. In his 413 minutes of action, Roca, who has been likened to a quarterback by former Bayern technical director Michael Reschke, made 283 passes, as per Whoscored, with a completion rate of 88 per cent, while he also won 60 per cent of the tackles he attempted.
Roca produced similar numbers during his six appearances in his first season, but given Leeds probably won’t be running away with any league titles next season, it might be more useful to a examine Roca’s Espanyol stats, where he was a key man for a number of seasons and showed steady progression following his emergence into the first-team at the Barcelona club.
Espanyol were relegated in Roca’s final season in La Liga, but his form saw him linked with the likes of Real Madrid, Arsenal and AC Milan, as well as Bayern, and it’s not hard to see why. He made 35 outings in the league that year and in a struggling side he still managed to produce 1670 passes, of which 1355 were accurate, and he attempted 135 tackles.
He made 31 interceptions and he blocked 18 passes, underlining his ability to break up play, and recover possession, while an average of 21.15 pressures per game give an inkling of his aggressive style off the ball. He showed a will to get forward, too, scoring two goals from a total of 32 shots, a figure that steadily increased during his years in the Espanyol first-team.
His prowess with the ball at his feet was showcased even more during the 2018-19 La Liga campaign, as he racked up 1956 passes, which was only bettered by nine players across the entire division, including the likes of Toni Kroos, Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic. Of those passes, 149 were accurate long balls, while 1551 were short passes.
Roca certainly seems to tick plenty of boxes and at a fee said to be around the £10m mark, Leeds have every right to believe he is a sound piece of business. Of course, there is a certain amount of risk attached to any new signing, but if the former Spain under-21 international can carry those figures into the Premier League, he could be capable of catching fire in a Leeds shirt.
