I feel like he’s being a little bit harsh here.
Especially considering the points that I’ve been making all season about the fact we’re maybe too reliant on him this season, it kind of makes you wonder if he’s been watching the same games.
Pablo Hernandez has come in for a little bit of criticism for his recent performances from one former Leeds United player. Which is bizarre when you consider that this comes just hours after he scored the winner against Reading on the weekend.
But speaking to Football Insider, Noel Whelan believes that he hasn’t been playing at his best, and that there is a lot more to come from the Spaniard between now and the end of the season:
“These sort of bigger players need to stand up now and take the game by the scruff of the neck. Pablo Hernandez, the experience and the quality that he has, he’s not the heights of the last couple of season [sic], he’s not playing to his maximum capabilities. We know there’s still another 25 per cent in that kid. We have to be asking more of certain players, to be more influential on the game for longer.”
Is Pablo Hernandez our most important player?
Yes
No
If you compare his numbers from this year to last year, it’s not as if he has fallen off a cliff, he’s roughly where you would expect him to be considering both his age and the fact that he has spent a few weeks out of the team completely, so this isn’t really something that I’m going to blast Hernandez for. These are roughly the levels of production that I would expect for someone in his situation.
Indeed going further than that, given that he’s near the top of the table for a lot of Leeds United’s attacking statistics, you could argue that he’s been the perfect all-round player for Marcelo Bielsa’s men this campaign.
It’s the rest of the team that needs to start upping their game between now and the end of the campaign if anything.