What’s 'Cook' in down at Elland Road?

Picture Credit: yorkshirepost.co.uk

There is little doubt that Leeds United’s midfield is underperforming in certain areas and with certain personnel; I have written about it in longer articles and match reports. Reliance is being placed on two players more so than others, these being Rodolph Austin and Michael Tonge, to be the ‘passing midfielders’ of the team. There are views that the ‘4-4-2 Diamond’ system being operated down LS11 way is forcing players to play outside their natural roles. For example Luke Murphy playing as an attacking midfield player and Tommasso Bianchi as a wider midfield player; both of these players are more of your traditional central midfield player. Despite all the doom and gloom emanating from Elland Road, there are positive rumblings being made about Lewis Cook; Cook is a 17 year old midfielder who in 2014 was part of England’s victorious U17’s at the UEFA Under-17 Championship where he started 5 games including both the semi-final and final.

Picture Credit: Getty Images

Table of Midfielders’ contributions – Passes During Game (per 90)

	Fwd	Bwd	Success %	Chances	Avg pass length (mtrs)
Lewis Cook	22.98	32.55	83%	2	18.33
Rodolph Austin	41.77	18	83%	0	24
Michael Tonge	26.13	21.15	84%	0	18.33
Luke Murphy	16.96	13.15	75%	4	22
Tommaso Bianchi	24	13	72%	0	20

‘Passing Success’ – cumulative over season

C* - Cumulative totals

Source Squawka.com

Using ‘per 90’ matrics, as Lewis Cook has only played 47 minutes over 3 games, it can be argued that Cook’s figures more than hold measure against his fellow midfield players at Leeds United. His combined ‘per 90’ figure of around 55 passes is second only to Rodolph Austin’s output of just shy of 60 successful passes per 90 minutes. What is more startling, however, is that Lewis Cook has a better record at creating ' b

Lewis Cook has shown encouraging signs in his cameo performances as a substitute this season; it will be interesting to find out how these encouraging figures hold up as the 2015/15 Championship season develops.