Leeds United’s summer spending on their return to the top-flight has already topped £40m with the first-team additions of Rodrigo and Robin Koch. However, it looks as though they could double that eye-watering figure with the signing of Udinese’s Rodrigo De Paul.
Spending £80m in a single window is almost incomprehensible for a fanbase who have seen their club traverse the Football League for the past 16 years, but the likelihood is that Leeds’ investment in the playing squad is not yet finished.
Argentine playmaker Rodrigo De Paul has been identified by the club as a potential addition, and the statistics underpinning his time spent in Serie A are hugely encouraging.
Using Jon Ollington’s data visualisation , De Paul emerges as one of the best ball progressors in Europe, both in terms of progressive carries and progressive passes. It is a dual threat that is rarely found in a single player, but De Paul appears to be a rare find indeed.
Players on a comparable plane include Jack Grealish, Joshua Kimmich and even Kevin De Bruyne, suggesting in these metrics at least, De Paul is on par with some of the Premier League’s and Europe’s elite.
At first glance, De Paul appears to be an excellent fit for Leeds. His brand of progressive carrying and passing would align nicely with Marcelo Bielsa’s vertical approach – moving the ball forwards from deeper areas as quickly as possible.
The 26-year-old would be a key player for Leeds at moving the ball up the pitch, and should he be able to replicate some semblance of his output in front of goal over the past few seasons, he would be one of the club’s best players.
At Udinese, De Paul has been directly involved in 41 Serie A goals over the past three campaigns according to WhoScored.com; scoring 20 times and assisting on 21 occasions. His dual threat as a ball progressor translates nicely to him being exactly that in the final third too. It is just another area where he mirrors the style of Manchester City ace De Bruyne.
De Paul’s tendency to carry the ball upfield makes him an appropriate option to play wide in this Leeds team, something he is capable of doing. His experience centrally also indicates he could be used in Pablo Hernández’s role in midfield, as the 35-year-old draws closer to the twilight of his career.
The consistency which he has shown during his time in Italy will be of some comfort to Leeds supporters questioning what sort of player they are heavily linked with. He has played no fewer than 34 league games in each of his four campaigns at Udinese, featuring in 141 of the last 152 Serie A fixtures his side have contested.
Everything points towards De Paul being one of the final pieces in Bielsa’s jigsaw that is his first season in top-flight English management. The draw of playing under one of his nation’s most revered and iconic coaches will no doubt be a factor in De Paul’s decision of whether to remain or Italy, or test himself in West Yorkshire.
