Joe Rodon would be the perfect cover for Tottenham duo Cristian Romero and Micky Van De Ven
Tottenham have been handed a defensive crisis in recent weeks after the battle against Chelsea, and that has led to plenty of transfer speculation.
Cristian Romero was sent off and received a three-game ban, while Micky Van De Ven suffered a gruesome hamstring injury that is likely to rule him out until the new year at least.
That has led to reports that the club could look to dip into the winter transfer market for new solutions at centre-back, with the current alternatives being out-of-favour Eric Dier and natural left-back Ben Davies.
But while the club could spend millions on defenders, with Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite the most recent option to be linked with a move they could already have an option on their books who could do a job.
Joe Rodon is a Wales international with top-flight experience, who is currently on loan at Leeds United in the Championship and flying as their first-choice option at the back.
He has proven to be extremely impressive on the ball and defensively despite it being at a lower level, and while Leeds will no doubt look to keep hold of him Spurs should certainly look into recalling him to cover for our first-choice options judging by the stats on WhoScored.
So far this season Rodon has played more than both Romero and Van de Ven, showing that he is capable of playing with his fitness a key point to this.
Rodon has average four clearances per game this season, more than both Romero and Van de Ven, while he has also managed 0.9 blocks per game which is almost double the amount that the others manage.
The rest of his stats are not as good as them, which would be expected with a back-up option who we already know isn’t as good. But the spread of numbers suggest that he could definitely come in and do a job.
Rodon has average 1.2 interceptions per game, which is three times as many as Van de Ven while he also manages 0.5 fouls per game which is less than Romero. He’s also yet to be dribbled past in the Championship, showing his quality as a one v one defender.
Further to that his passing is strong too. Rodon has a pass success percentage of 89.9% compared to 92.2% for Romero and 94.6% for Van de Ven, while he plays two long balls per game compared to 2.1 from Romero and 1.5 from Van de Ven.
His number of passes per game is much less at 55.7 compared to 73.7 from Romero and 63.8 from Van de Ven, but in a team who controls possession more like Spurs do he is clearly capable.
Negotiating with Leeds to bring Rodon back early will no doubt be difficult to do, and it would likely cost a few million to make happen. But that would be a far better option than spending tens of millions in January for a player who likely wouldn’t outperform Rodon by too much.
In other Tottenham news, Marcelo Bielsa couldn’t be more right about what he said on Rodrigo Bentancur.