Should Pablo Hernandez Extend His Leeds Contract?
Since arriving in Britain from Valencia back in 2012, Pablo Hernandez has gone on to have an excellent, if quiet career. Two spells in the English league have seen the Spaniard play 100 games for Swansea City and Leeds United and his quality is not in question.
The only thing to consider with Hernandez is that there is little of an ‘in between’ with him as a player. Because of his style and lack of pace, he will need plenty of time on the ball and so those that can deny him that, tend to take him out of the game completely. That sounds like a major negative. However, the flip side of that coin is that when he does get some time on the ball, he is a pure artist in possession and can wipe out defences with a single pass.
Hernandez sits right on top of the Championship stats for key passes per game at 2.7 and has impressive stats across the board. Hernandez is ranked below defensive duo Kyle Bartley and Pontus Jansson for his average mark out of 10 according to Whoscored.com and surely Leeds could do without losing all of their top 3 best performers.
The former Swansea man is also 2nd for successful dribbles, 1st for assists, 2nd in shots per game and has a thoroughly acceptable pass completion rate of 75%. Although statistics don’t always tell the full story, it is clear looking at this, that Hernandez is valuable to Leeds United and should be retained.
Hernandez is getting on in terms of age now but with that age comes experience and there is no doubt he is used to the big stage. While with Valencia, Pablo was a runner-up in both the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup. A League Cup Winners medal gained with Swansea in 2013 was followed in 2015 by League Cup and Presidents Cup wins in the UAE with Al Nasr. Should Leeds get into a position to challenge either for automatic promotion or a playoff spot next season, they will have a very cool head in their ranks to see them over the line in the shape of Pablo Hernandez.
The fact that Barrow, Sacko, and Pedraza could possibly depart during the summer leaves Leeds with very little in the way of support for Chris Wood. There is a talk of Tom Lawrence arriving from Leicester and the club will need to keep hold of an improving Kemar Roofe. However, another departure from the attacking supporting cast would not be appreciated by Monk so Hernandez should probably stay at Leeds United.
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