A few Leeds United fans have been reacting on social media to statistical praise for Helder Costa for the Portuguese’s performance away to Middlesbrough on Wednesday night.
Boss Marcelo Bielsa called on Costa to start the Championship affair at the Riverside Stadium, despite the forward coming under fire in recent weeks by corners of the fanbase who have been left underwhelmed by his exploits.
Costa has now started 25 league games since moving to Elland Road last summer, and saw out the full 90 minutes for the eighth match running during the week.
The 26-year-old was unable to influence the scoring as we beat Boro 1-0, with the one-time international now ten second-tier games without a goal to his name and is 17 games without being credited with an assist, either.
But despite that, the Leeds United specific StatZone Twitter account has sought to praise Costa for his display on Teesside, by noting that he boasted the highest pass accuracy rating of any player to have featured during the game.
How do you rate Costa's performance vs Boro?
Positive display
Needs to improve
Costa completed 92% of his 24 attempted passes on Wednesday to be the only player above the 90% mark, with Patrick Bamford the second-highest ranked at 89% in an all-Leeds top-five with Stuart Dallas (87%), Kiko Casilla (86%) and Mateusz Klich (85%).
StatZone also note that Costa took 57 touches, won ten duels, made nine recoveries and delivered four crosses at the Riverside Stadium.
Costa accumulated his ten successful duels from 15 ground battles, while losing his only aerial contest and being fouled four times, per Sofa Score.
He also lost possession 14 times, only found a teammate with one of his four crosses, played no long passes, registered one key ball, took no shots, was successful with three of his five attempted dribbles and was caught offside once.
Here are some of the messages shared as fans reacted to StatZone’s praise for Costa…
Yet he had a poor game according to some https://t.co/j8VqNbNkj3
— Dom (@dommer14) February 27, 2020
But the moaners still say its not good enough
— lufc (@YarwoodAy) February 27, 2020
Well done Helder. Worked hard yesterday 👏🏽
— Kay Maposa (@KayMaposa) February 27, 2020
This is an impressive stat and great accuracy. My concern is he attempted 24 passes from 57 touches. So he ran the ball out of play of play or lost the ball 33 times?
— Paul (@paul_smith_1980) February 27, 2020
Ooh….the haters going to hate!
— The Pudsey One (@nigelbarker1971) February 27, 2020
Seen a strange amount of slagging off in Costa’s direction today. Thought he was brilliant. #lufc https://t.co/U2tB4AWyqN
— Marshmello Bielsa (@LUFCVirginia) February 27, 2020
In other Leeds United news, a key Whites figure has been approached over a summer move away from Elland Road.