What Daniel Farke said about Ao Tanaka vs Brighton highlights two Leeds truths

When explaining his line-up, he referenced how he wanted players who could offer bravery. “He was excellent in the cup in Nottingham, and also the second half against Brentford,” the boss explained.

“He was perhaps not that much in the spotlight, but he also helped us to get control back a lot. Also with his bravery on the ball - I wanted brave players today.”

Tanaka replicated these traits against Brighton upon his first Premier League start of the season. He won all four of his duels - the only Leeds player to achieve a 100% score in this metric.

The midfielder - sitting fairly deep - also completed three turnovers including one in the final third. Tanaka also attempted six passes into the final third. Only three of them came off, but the pass graph (below) from the first half shows the intention he had.

But while Farke admired Tanaka’s bravery, he would have also been pleased with his composure and stability. Only Nico Elvedi had a higher pass completion rate among Leeds United’s starters (89.5%).

Tanaka completed 19 of his 24 passes, a return of 79.2%. He also only lost possession five times, which was the lowest out of any Leeds outfielder who started the match.

His impact is perhaps demonstrated best by the graphic below. His touchmap is like a beehive - filling in the spaces and not being afraid to show his aforementioned bravery and lurch forward.

Tanaka did this serenely, too. His total distance sat at 8.4km, which was the fourth lowest out of the Leeds starting XI. So rather than him being accused of laziness, the graph above in fact underscores his intelligent reading of the game.

It was notable that Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler mentioned Tanaka when listing Leeds’ danger players in his pre-match press conference. He is not the first opposotion manager to do so.

The technical ability of Tanaka cannot be questioned and his general play is pleasing on the eye. But sometimes the end execution or emotional nous has been left wanting.

This is something evident to Farke and all those who watched the playmaker week-to-week last season, while outside eyebrows were raised over why he was being left on the bench. The reality was that several giveaways or fouls had led to important result-changing goals.

This all came to the fore on the biggest stage of all this summer, the substitute giving the ball away for Brazil’s 95th-minute winner in the World Cup knockouts. An emotional character anyway, he was distraught.

Farke admitted some of the criticism he received last year was “fair” but underlined that it was his first top-flight season across his career. And evidently, going by Saturday’s comments, the boss has been pleased by his response since his summer return.

However, as ever, there are still next steps Tanaka can take. Many of his mistakes last year came when trying to be positive. Indeed, perhaps naturally, nearly all of his losses of the ball this season have come while passing forward.

If Tanaka does want to make that step up to become even more effective, it is about making these line-breaking passes count. To help with that, perhaps his average positioning comes into play.

As seen in the graphic below, his average position against Brentford was fairly deep. This will have been both due to Farke’s instruction but also down to Brentford’s fantastic fluidity in possession.

As a result, he attempted a lesser four final-third passes, albeit it must be said he did only play 45 minutes, rather than the 73 he enjoyed against Brighton. But at the Amex, his heatmap showed him being advanced slightly further forward.

As mentioned he did have more time on the pitch, so was able to attempt six final-third passes - but perhaps the best guide is that against Brentford, he failed to have a touch inside the opposition box. At Brighton, he had three - not including his disallowed goal.

Whether he meant his assist for Jayden Bogle or not, only he will know. Perhaps his celebration suggests he did.

There are two clear truths with Tanaka; his technical capacity is large but his execution is sometimes lacking. His showing against Brighton showed that he is making steps to address the latter.

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