If you had told a Leeds United fan this time last month that Pablo Hernandez wouldn’t start any of the club’s first five games of the restart, they might have broken into a cold sweat.
The veteran midfielder has so often been the club’s talisman in recent years, as you might expect from someone who didn’t look out of place alongside the likes of Juan Mata, David Silva and David Villa at Valencia.
Hernandez possesses a speed of thought and technical ability that’s unparalleled in the second tier. He’s so often the difference-maker for Leeds, as Stoke found to their horror when he produced a masterclass from the bench to compound their misery on Thursday.
Marcelo Bielsa is all too aware of the qualities Hernandez possesses, which is why he’s been so careful with his minutes during the run-in.
"He is one of the best players in his position I have worked with in my career," said the Argentinian, just a couple of months into his tenure as Leeds coach.
"I think he is the player in our team who has had the biggest influence in our games so far. There is a great lucidity about his play - he always seems to instinctively know what to do for the needs of the team - and he can influence the game at the front, middle and the back.
"He can find a solution to a problem anywhere on the pitch and is always making the team more fluid with what he does. He is a silent leader for us - he does all these things without saying a word."
Nearly two years on, little has changed. That ‘great lucidity’ is still there, as so wonderfully described by a manager who appears to share Hernandez’s fearless essence.
He’s a player who pulls off impossible things with a football, playing under a tactician that has Leeds playing a style unimaginable under his predecessors.
We might never have had a better example than Thursday’s scintillating second half against Stoke, as Leeds clicked into first gear on their way to their biggest win of the Bielsa era.
Within just two minutes Hernandez was involved in an inspired piece of interplay, playing a quick one-two with Stuart Dallas, who on re-receiving the ball played in Helder Costa to double United’s lead.
After the pre-assist came the assist, as Hernandez ghosted across Stoke’s penalty area to find space before cutting the ball back to Liam Cooper, who found the net via the post.
After the assist came the goal. Hernandez found himself unmarked on the edge of Stoke’s penalty area, having originally been involved at the opposite end of the pitch in the embryonic stage of a 30-pass move.
As the centre-forward, Patrick Bamford would have been within his rights to take Helder Costa’s pass and try his luck, but he played the percentages to dummy the ball into Hernandez’s path.
Bamford is well aware of the Spaniard’s precision, and Hernandez didn’t let him down with an insouciant finish into the bottom corner.
In just one half of football, Hernandez toyed with Stoke. He had 51 touches of the ball and completed 31 accurate passes - more than every opposition player on both counts.
Hernandez also played three key passes - defined as the last one before a team-mate shoots at goal - which is more than Stoke managed collectively in the entire match.
For players as good as Hernandez, just a half can be enough.
