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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
For Leeds United, last season seemed to be all about one man in attack.
That was Pablo Hernandez who after his stellar season may or may not have been unfortunate to miss out on a nomination for the PFA Player of the Year award.
Missing out on promotion will have been a deeper concern for the Spaniard who scored 12 goals but also laid on the same number of assists in what was a superb campaign for the experienced individual.
He started the new term in similar form, netting in Leeds’ opening two matches against Bristol City and Nottingham Forest but his display against Brentford was uncharacteristic.
It was a display which could come as a particular concern for Marcelo Bielsa whose team lacked large amounts of creativity throughout the 90 minutes.
Their game against Brentford amounted to eight key passes, three of which came from Ezgjan Alioski, a statistic that tells a sorry tale of their struggles to find Patrick Bamford who had just two attempts on goal.
Hernandez was bright against Wigan last weekend, albeit versus ten men as he registered five shots. However, in his last three matches, he’s only created three chances for his teammates.
Compared to last term when he laid on three key passes in a single game on average, there is a big difference.
His struggles to create were evident on Wednesday night as the 34-year-old ended the encounter with a measly pass success rate of just 75%.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he was dispossessed twice as he failed to ever really get going.
Brentford stood firm for large parts of the game which meant Hernandez managed just one dribble. Against Wigan he had five which sums up his tricky evening and why it was a particularly concerning outing.
The former Swansea man was eventually dragged off in place of match-winner Eddie Nketiah as Helder Costa moved out to the right-hand side.
Both of their impacts were devastating, combining for the goal as Bielsa finally found an answer going forward.
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