Add as preferred source on Google

After a late call-up to the starting XI against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leeds United defender Pascal Struijk has received praise off a teammate for his performance on Monday night.

Struijk, 21, was drafted into the Leeds team yesterday after captain Liam Cooper was forced to pull out of the side in the warm-up.

The left-footed centre-back looked assured for the majority of the contest at Elland Road, but unfortunately ended up on the losing side.

Marcelo Bielsa’s team were beaten 1-0 by Wolves in the Premier League fixture, with prolific centre-forward Raul Jimenez scoring the winning goal in the second-half with his deflected strike.

Leeds’ stand-in captain Ayling has credited Struijk for his display against Wolves despite defeat:

“We knew Liam was touch and go for the game, he worked really hard to even have a chance of playing and unfortunately it came around too quickly. Pascal trained in there all week, he knew he was going to have a chance of playing, so he came in and played very well,” Ayling told LUTV.

TBR’s View:

Struijk may be a fairly inexperienced player at Leeds, but he’s proof that there is talent in the squad beyond just the starting XI and he looks like someone that is going to improve with more game-time.

He may be a little sloppy at times and is not the finished article, but it’s evident that the ball-playing centre-back fits the Bielsa system and he’s doing the work on the training ground to slot into the XI when needed.

It’s not easy for any player to be thrown into the team at the very last moment and for the most part he handled marksman Jimenez well.