Adryan v Murphy: Comparing the Leeds players’ key stats this season

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Taking a closer look at how two of Leeds United’s players are performing in the current campaign.

Leeds United loanee Adryan had to wait patiently for a first-team chance this season, with the young Brazilian featuring for the under-21 side in his early weeks at the club.

For the first seven Championship matches he was eligible to play in, Adryan was on the bench four times and omitted from the squad three times.

But then his chance came, first as a substitute in a 2-1 defeat to Rotherham United and then as a starter against Norwich City, where he provided the assist in a 1-1 draw.

From there he started eight of the next nine matches, but more recently he has been missing, not included in any of the last four match-day squads and playing just 10 minutes in Leeds’ last six matches.

While the Brazilian has gone off the boil, some of his fellow Leeds players have stepped up to the plate, not least Luke Murphy.

Having recovered from an Achilles tendon injury, the 25-year-old midfielder has done what many expected Adryan to do once he had found his feet, scoring vital goals against Birmingham City and Bournemouth and providing an equally important assist in last weekend’s victory against Huddersfield.

In short, while Adryan has gone missing, Murphy has announced his return in spectacular fashion.

As you can see from the statistics above, Adryan’s passing accuracy has been six per cent better than Murphy’s in the league this season, but Leeds’ recent goal-scoring hero has a better on-target shooting accuracy, plays more forward passes per match and sets up more goal-scoring opportunities for his teammates.

Murphy also averages more duels per match and his all-round contribution to Leeds’ cause cannot be understated.

Adryan may still get chances to show what he can do in the remainder of campaign, but for now it is Murphy who is proving to be the difference, and one wonders where Leeds would be in the Championship if he had remained fit all season.