'We've got to be' - The Leeds tactical tweak Rodon wants to see more of next season
· Kyle Newbould · 2026-08-11 · nguồn gốc
'We've got to be' - The Leeds United tactical tweak Joe Rodon wants to see more of next season
The Welshman’s tactical role was an interesting takeaway from last weekend’s win over RB Leipzig.
Leeds United defender Joe Rodon has called for more tactical flexibility after an interesting individual performance against RB Leipzig.
Rodon was in his natural right-sided centre-back position during the first 60-minute period of Saturday’s 2-0 pre-season win - on paper, at least. In reality, the Welshman moved between multiple roles down the Leeds right, at times more advanced than wing-back Jayden Bogle or even winger Harry Wilson.
Leeds opened the scoring inside seven minutes and it came from a bursting Rodon run, the defender latching onto Bogle’s ball in behind and crossing for Dominic Calvert-Lewin as an auxiliary winger. It was a tactical tweak seen before, most notably in last season’s 4-1 home win over Crystal Palace.
“It was good to be back in front of the fans,” Rodon told LUTV. “We know they are a top team, a Champions League team, so we knew it was going to be a difficult game but I thought we started strong and quick.
“The Premier League is the fastest league in the world so we wanted to come out with intensity and I thought the boys did that. There is stuff we have been working on. I think if we are playing this system, we’ve got to be a bit more flexible. I thought we kind of worked them out a little bit early on, they weren’t kind of jumping and sliding so we wanted to exploit the space.
“It was a great ball from Jayden [Bogle]. And Dom, he is always in the box for the right position, so yeah, it was a good goal. I knew Dom was going to be there, so it was kind of simple for me. Overall a great team goal, and yeah delighted to contribute.”
That interesting dynamic down the right will only improve as summer signing Wilson becomes more familiar with his new surroundings. The former Fulham star has shown moments of technical quality and picked up some really dangerous positions, albeit the final product is yet to follow.
Further back, Tarik Muharemovic has settled into his role with exceptional ease while club-record £40million transfer James Trafford will join up with his teammates today. Rodon has just entered his fourth year as a Leeds player and is now at the heart of what he labels an ‘amazing’ group.
“Obviously we spent a lot of time together in the States,” he added. “It’s an amazing dressing room, so easy to come in. It’s a credit to the boss and Ethan [Ampadu], it’s an amazing environment, amazing changing room so we want to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible straight away. The new signings have settled in very quickly.
“I think we have worked really hard and, you know, it’s been relentless in the first three weeks. But we always want to be one of the fittest teams, or most prepared teams. So it is looking good, we are building minutes, ready to go into the season hopefully firing.”