Ao Tanaka found himself on the bench on Boxing Day as Leeds United beat Stoke City 2-0 at the bet365 Stadium to record their first win at the stadium since 2019 and their first three points on Boxing Day since 2018. The Japanese has been ever-present in the team since the start of October but suddenly found himself out of the starting eleven. However, he is now likely to face a fight to get back into the starting eleven for the rest of the season.
Tanaka replaced Ethan Ampadu just before half-time against Coventry City on 28th September after the Leeds captain sustained a knee injury and he never looked back since then.
The Japanese became a certain starter in midfield alongside Joe Rothwell and the duo formed a strong midfield partnership that kept Leeds going in the absence of Ampadu in the team.
The Welshman’s return to fitness was always going to lead to a rejig in either defence or midfield. It appeared last weekend that the Whites captained settled at the heart of the team’s defence.
However, his versatility meant that a return to midfield was never out of the question and on Boxing Day, Daniel Farke decided to drop Tanaka to the bench to accommodate Ampadu alongside Rothwell in midfield against Stoke.
The Leeds captain was brilliant against Stoke and provided leadership, composure and calmness to the Leeds team as they produced a rare solid performance away from home this season.
Tanaka did little wrong to get dropped from the starting eleven in Ampadu’s absence but it seems he is set to pay for his return to the team this season in the latter half of the season.
Ao Tanaka is unlucky but he is now in a fight to be in the eleven
The Japanese midfielder formed a strong duo with Joe Rotherwell. The energy of Ao Tanaka and the passing range of the Bournemouth loanee allowed Leeds to absorb the injury blows to Ampadu and Ilia Gruev.
We even argued that Tanaka could play in the number 10 role to accommodate Ampadu in the Leeds midfield but Farke has chosen a different route.
He has decided against dropping Brenden Aaronson to the bench and instead took the former Fortuna Dusseldorf midfielder out of the starting eleven.
Ampadu’s brilliant performance against Stoke suggests that unless Farke needs the feel to rotate or there is an injury problem, the Welshman and Rothwell will likely remain the midfield partnership going forward.
It means Tanaka finds himself looking from the outside for no fault of his. He will have to work hard to get back into the starting eleven for the rest of the season.
He has been one of Leeds’ best midfielders but Ampadu is class apart and is the club captain, which means he would be getting preferred over the Japanese.
Is there a way back for him?
The short answer is, yes. Tanaka can of course get back into the team as there is enough evidence this season that he remains a quality player.
However, Ampadu is likely to remain the first-choice midfielder and Farke would not want to drop Pascal Struijk anymore to accommodate the Welshman in defence.
The Leeds captain is returning from a knee injury and playing him in every game during the festive period could stretch his body in the coming days.
There is always a chance Tanaka comes back into the team on Sunday when Leeds take on Derby at Pride Park due to the quick turnover between the games.
However, moving forward it could get increasingly harder for him to get into the starting eleven as Farke is known for trusting a small group of players and avoids tinkering with his line-ups.
Tanaka will remain an important player as Leeds would need their squad to achieve automatic promotion but it seems, he has lost his place in the starting eleven for now.
