Considering Leeds United's woes at the back this season which see them recognised as the worst defensive side in the division, it seems remarkable that one of their loan players could be set to feature in the Europa League final with Roma.
Should Leeds have loaned out Diego Llorente?
The January arrival of Maximilian Wober from RB Salzburg meant that former director of football Victor Orta was happy to send the unsettled Diego Llorente out on loan to Italy, with the centre-back featuring regularly for Jose Mourinho in recent weeks and arguably showing just how much Leeds have missed him.
In the Spaniard's absence, Liam Cooper has been sidelined through injury while the likes of Robin Koch and Pascal Struijk have struggled for form, as Leeds shipped a record amount of goals in the month of April, breaking their own unwanted record.
Meanwhile, after a slow start to life at Roma, Llorente has integrated himself as something of a regular in Mourinho's defence, making eight appearances in total, with an impressive recent display in the 4-1 triumph over Feyenoord, which saw him earn a solid 6.75 rating from WhoScored and helped the Serie A side en route to the Europa League final.
While he didn't feature in the semi-final triumph against Bayer Leverkusen, the centre-back will be an option for the experienced manager in the final against Sevilla, and Leeds fans may well be wondering why he is on the brink of European success rather than aiding his parent club in their battle against relegation from the Premier League.
Llorente, who earns £45k-per-week earned plenty of praise from BT Sport commentators Dave Farrar and Nigel Spackman in a derby game against Lazio back in March.
Farrar said: (via MOT Leeds News):
“That’s a heroic challenge from Llorente."
Spackman added: “
Llorente did so well. He anticipated what Luis Alberto was going to do, and then Luis Alberto takes it on and he slides in, he should go himself. Brilliant interception.”
This sort of defending has certainly been missing at Leeds in recent weeks, with the embarrassing defeats against Crystal Palace, Liverpool and ultimately Bournemouth costing Javi Gracia his job.
Sam Allardyce will be looking to make Leeds a more defensively solid outfit in the final two games of the season, with the Yorkshire outfit's survival hopes looking bleak, but he has utilised right-back Rasmus Kristensen as a centre-back in his two games thus far.
This emphasises how poor Leeds' centre-back options have been and how little faith Allardyce has in them, so he will surely be wishing he could call upon an experienced option such as Llorente at Elland Road for the final two fixtures.
