He’s used all his options, worked off his dues, laid down his cards and now has nothing to lose. He doesn’t want tomorrow to be like today, that’s why Robin Koch is breaking away.
Robin Koch has said his goodbyes at Freiburg and will have his medical at Leeds this weekend before joining up with Joachim Low’s Germany squad on Monday. Fee is £13m plus add-ons. #LUFC
— David Anderson (@MirrorAnderson) August 28, 2020
Finally, Leeds United fans can forget the Ben White saga; if they haven’t already. Koch coming to Elland Road will be the one central defender that Marcelo Bielsa is readying to convert to his style of play in readiness for what will be a tough Premier League campaign.
Koch is more than suitable for the job at hand and the style of play that Marcelo Bielsa will task him with, as the following graphic details:
Robin Koch – game situations 2019/20 – SC Freiburg
The above graphic, courtesy of Smarterscout, shows the frequency and positions of game situations that Robin Koch was involved in last season for Freiburg in the 1.Bundesliga competition. What is clear is that he dominates centrally and is disciplined in that he rarely advances past half-way. The majority of his passes in the central portion of the field are a mix of long (yellow) and medium (green) passes. Shorter passes (blue) tend to be more prevalent when he moves out wider or more advanced.
Moving over to WhoScored and looking at what Leeds can expect in a typical 90-minute game from Koch (per 90 mins stats) reveals the following:
- Tackles: 1.1 successful; 0-5 dribbled past; 1.6 total tackle actions
- Interceptions: 1.5
- Clearances: 3.1
- Blocks: 1.0 (shots blocked 0.7/passes blocked 0.3)
- Total Defensive Actions: 6.7
- Pass Attempts: 50.1; accurate passes 41.9 (4.5 long/37.4 short) inaccurate passes 8.1 (3 long/5.1 short)
- Pass Accuracy: 83.6%
- Chances created: 0.4
- Shots: 1.2 (0.2 out of box/0.3 six yd box/0.6 penalty area
Koch’s arrival, which will no doubt be tracked by Leeds United Fan Air-Traffic Control, will make this potentially a £40m weekend. You get the feeling that the Whites won’t be done with this either and that there’s likely another deal yet to be unleashed.
