What does Ao Tanaka bring to Leeds United?

What does new signing and Japanese international Ao Tanaka bring to Leeds United?

Transcript

00:00I think Tanaka is the one that could be the lowest key addition, but could prove to be the

00:07big surprise package. I really think that he's somebody who can be unlike a different style

00:14of player that any other championship team has. It's part of the reason why I genuinely don't

00:20think they need Gus Hamer. I'm not saying that Tanaka's anything like Hamer, but I do think that

00:27in midfield this year, you're going to see a lot more creativity, a lot more incision

00:33from deeper areas. From speaking to people who've watched Tanaka,

00:37and not just at Fortuna Düsseldorf or at the World Cup, but when he was in the J League,

00:43versatility is the big one that stands out. Technical ability is another thing that stands out.

00:49And as well, when Joe Rothwell was signed, I was looking at the numbers and pass accuracy and that

00:58sort of thing, and I was thinking, okay, yeah, you have maybe sacrificed a bit of ball retention

01:06and security in possession compared to Glen Kamara, whereas with Tanaka, I feel like you're

01:13getting the best of both. He's someone who is very active in possession, so it's not as though

01:20he's purely a transitional player. He's hitting all the big metrics, sorry, he's at the top of

01:29the percentiles for passes completed, passes attempted, over different distances as well.

01:36It's not like he's just someone who's going to, as you said, take one touch, pass it one side,

01:41receive it back, pass to the other. He's going to go for those medium to long range passes as well,

01:47as the simple Kamara-y ticking over sort of stuff. But he's also got a creative edge to him,

01:55so that's why I think that maybe not, I'm not saying that this will be the case, but

02:01I'd like to think that there'll be less of a reliance on that number 10, whoever it may be,

02:06to create this season.