Summer signing Joe Rodon has found game time hard to come by this season. The young Welshman has only played in 9 games for the yids this season with 7 of those in the Premier League.

Part of Rodon’s problem has been that he was signed too late to be registered for the Europa League and Mourinho decided not to register him for the knockout stages.

When Rodon did play, he has performed well although he has made a few mistakes. However, Rodon is still only 23 and is learning every time he messes up and has yet to make the same mistake twice.
The same can’t be said for the rest of our defenders. Eric Dier continues to lose battles in the air as well as ’50-’50s and Davinson Sanchez is caught out of position at least a couple of times a day.

Toby Alderweireld is the only exception to this, however, the Belgian is aging and the opposition can get past him with pace. Tanganga is also an exception to this but he has yet to be given and Premier League chances in the position.

But, if Rodon was given an extended run in the team, he would be our best center back. Plus, if we develop Rodon this season, and buy a world-class center back over the summer, we could have our first choice center-back pairing for the next 5-10 years.

However, if we don’t play Rodon, we will have to continue to rotate defenders in and out of the team next season and we will find ourselves in the same mess we are currently in.