Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishWhile Manor Solomon and Jayden Bogle were celebrating their latest collaboration in the south-east corner of the Kassam Stadium, there was another moment being shared in Leeds United blue. Joe Rodon went to Daniel Farke and Ethan Ampadu chased him.Solomon will gladly accept his ninth goal of the season and history will reflect Bogle’s third assist of the campaign, but this was Rodon’s goal, make no mistake. The centre-back, as he so often is with Leeds’ territorial dominance, was 10 yards inside the opposition half as the stars aligned for him.Wilfried Gnonto had dropped back to cause doubt in Oxford United minds, while Bogle was arcing around everyone in yellow to collect the ball in space. Rodon saw it, executed it and removed four defenders from the equation in one jab of his boot.
Rodon battling for possession in Oxford on Friday night (Cameron Howard/Getty Images)Farke loved it and so did Ampadu. These are two people who respect and appreciate what Rodon has been doing on a weekly basis for 20 months in Leeds colours. They see the dirty work, the tackles, the headers, the aggression, the high standards, the battle scars, the trenches he dominates along United’s backline.This was another side to him. It’s a pass they probably see on a daily basis in training, but he doesn’t often get that platform in a competitive game. They were delighted for him. And that was only the start.His nine clearances, five of them headers, on Friday night were more than double the tally anyone else managed in the game. Rodon also won 10 of his 12 duels. He was indomitable on a night Leeds needed warriors.The 27-year-old was pumped up. He celebrated every victorious tackle or block as the minutes ebbed away from the game. Rodon seized his moment. There was even space for an 84th-minute drive upfield, like the team’s right-winger, to win a free-kick in Oxford territory.If Will Vaulks was Oxford’s trebuchet, Rodon was United’s 100-foot granite wall. Those throw-ins were hurled in all night and time after time, it was the Wales international clearing a path and sending the missiles back whence they came.It’s ironic that, in the week his team-mate, compatriot and friend Daniel James was nominated for Championship Player of the Season, it was Rodon’s turn in the limelight. In a week where James’s attacking prowess has, rightly, been acknowledged, it was the defender’s turn to be appreciated.Seasoned Leeds spectators know exactly what Rodon’s worth is to this team, but it’s easy for goals and assists to overshadow the soldiering being done at the rear. Are we guilty of taking Rodon for granted? Would anyone put him forward as United’s in-house player of the year?He’s just there, all the time, consistently churning out seven, eight and nine-out-of-10 performances. He has been there for every cough and splutter of this season, this run to being the best team in the league with only 270 minutes left to play.
Rodon celebrates Leeds’ win against Preston earlier this month (George Wood/Getty Images)Forty-three games, 43 starts. Rodon is durable, dependable and a leader in a side which is short on 30-something veterans playing regularly. While others have come and gone with fitness or form, the former Tottenham Hotspur man is the cornerstone of this team, Farke’s dream.He’s so close now to what he came back for. He was arguably last season’s player of the year. After failing to win promotion at Wembley, every right-thinking expectation expected Rodon would be back in the Premier League with someone else. Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton, front-row spectators in 2023-24, all had a nibble, but Leeds dug their claws in.Archie Gray’s sale to Tottenham may have got the ball rolling in those talks between the clubs and, release clause or not, chairman Paraag Marathe was dead-set on ensuring the wheels were greased on Rodon in the other direction. The defender did not take much convincing to come back. There was unfinished business and friends to be reunited with.Easter Monday at Elland Road with promotion virtually on the line is why Rodon came back. It will be a bear pit inside those four walls and Leeds have their fighter. As Solomon was given the honour of handing Sky Sports’s man of the match gong to Rodon, he kept it simple: “What a man, what a player.”(Header photo: Cameron Howard/Getty Images)
