If Brenden Aaronson doesn’t know what he is then how am I supposed to

When Brenden Aaronson spoke to the Yorkshire Evening Post during Leeds United’s pre-season tour of Germany, he was presented as a brave hero willing to face the music, or rather chorus of boos, that were about to soundtrack his return to Elland Road. Aaronson, we were told, didn’t have to do the interview, but apparently he had things to get off his chest, wanting to explain why he’d joined Max Wöber and the rest of the shitebags fleeing Leeds after sinking us back into the Championship. The truth is, though, Aaronson had never stopped talking and still hasn’t. He really is Jesse Marsch’s son.

This isn’t really about Aaronson’s decision to leave or return to Leeds, but fuck it, context is important, and I’ve got a few things to get off my chest too. Even taking Aaronson’s explanation at face value, it never stood up to much scrutiny. One of the reasons he wanted to leave the club, he said, was that he didn’t know who the manager was going to be, but given the story about his contract including a release clause just so happened to be leaked to The Athletic a day after Liam Cooper had told the squad, “If you don’t want to be here then fuck off,” in the wake of Leeds’ relegation on the final day of the season, I’m not sure he ever fancied hanging around to find out who was going to be his next boss. Particularly when he eventually joined Union Berlin on loan almost a week after Leeds had appointed Daniel Farke. (He also blamed uncertainty around who was going to be sporting director — as if that should really matter — again, even though Nick Hammond had been appointed three weeks before his exit to sort things out like a bunch of losers leaving on loan.)

As for his return — well, to paraphrase the man himself, Leeds started to look much more attractive again when he noticed we were doing well in the Championship and challenging for promotion, which also coincided with him warming the bench for a struggling Union Berlin side with one eye over their shoulder at the relegation zone. The problem is, a month before speaking to the YEP, he’d chatted to the Philadelphia Inquirer ahead of the Copa America and didn’t sound like a guy who’d already made his mind up he was off back to Beeston:

“It’s early,” he said. “I’m going to take my time with everything, and I’m just going to relax and enjoy my time here and focus on all the games against Colombia and Brazil and then going into the Copa América. So take it slow.”
But he hinted that he wouldn’t mind going back to Union, even though the club probably can’t afford buying him. Union has spent more than $10 million on a purchase only once in its history, and that was last summer with Champions League cash on the way.
“They made it clear that they would like to have me back if it’s possible,” Aaronson said. “But at this moment, like I said, I’m just kind of being open-minded, taking it slow, and just enjoying life and enjoying being with the national team.”

But it’s something else in that interview with the Inquirer that has been bugging me about Aaronson, something that is becoming a recurring theme in his interviews since. Struggling with a mid-twenties identity crisis that is common among this Leeds squad, Aaronson is desperate to change perceptions of him, not just about his commitment to the cause, but more specifically his playing style:

“I’ve always been really good at finding space in between the lines and being able to drive with the ball, take people on, and play the final ball and score goals. When I’m at my best, that’s what I can do.”
…
“Assisting and getting goals is my main priority, and being creative in those scenarios, and I think that that’s something that I’m continuing to get better and better at,” he said. “People look at the pressing and that side of things, but I think I can do a lot more than that.”

For all the faults with his game, you can’t knock Aaronson’s work rate — according to Farke, in the recent win over Swansea he covered more distance in a single game than any player in the Championship this season. It’s commendable. It’s a genuine strength. But it’s not what he wants to be known for, as he repeated in an interview with Goal last month:

“It’s definitely upsetting, because I think, in moments, I show a lot of quality with the ball. I don’t think a lot of people see that. People see my energy and that type of thing, and that’s easy to see. You’ll always see me giving 100 percent. That’s something that I’ve always had. That was the first thing I learned from my dad at a young age.”
“I want to be outside of that box,” he adds. “I’m not just a runner. I’m not just a guy that’s pressing all the time. I’ll show that, of course, but I think I’m also more than that, you know? I think I’m a guy that brings other things to the pitch and, yeah, I just wish people could see that more.”
…
“My technical ability on the ball, I don’t think I get a ton of credit for it, but whenever I’m playing consistent minutes, I always get going with assists, and I think the part of my game, dribbling and that type of thing, is kind of underrated. Even last game, I played a ball through and we scored off of it, but it didn’t count, of course. All of those little balls, like the pass before the pass, you don’t always see those things.”
He adds: “For me, it’s about continuing to get goals and assists because that’s something I want to be. I want to be that end-game guy where, by the end of the season, not only am I just doing stuff on the pitch, but getting the stats that my game shows.”

As a friend put it to me while moaning about Leeds over a beer recently, if Aaronson wants to be known for creating goals, then he would help himself out by creating some goals. If he thinks his dribbling is underrated and overlooked in favour of his defensive work off the ball, then he’ll be shocked to learn he’s made more successful tackles (28) than take-ons (26) this season.

Stats aren’t everything, but as things stand Aaronson is “getting the stats that my game shows”. On the same day his interview with Goal about how fans don’t see his quality was published, a post on social media was doing the rounds about how he’s the most dispossessed player in the division, which remains the case by a fair distance. A 46-game Championship season is likely to lead to his most productive campaign in terms of goalscoring — he’s scored four goals so far this term; his current best is seven for Fizzy Salzburg in 2020/21 — but he’s also missed five big chances, the joint-most in Leeds’ squad alongside Mateo Joseph, and has the same shot conversion rate as full-back Jayden Bogle due to his allergic reaction towards aiming for the far post.

Aaronson, to be fair, has created a healthy amount of chances — 26 of his passes have led to a shot, one fewer than Wilf Gnonto, who leads that particular metric for United. The quality of those chances, however, is a different story — only four are classed as ‘big chances’. Gnonto has created twice that amount, while five of Dan James’ fourteen chances created are classed as ‘big chances’.

All of this adds up to making me think that Aaronson doesn’t know what type of footballer he is, which is understandable, because neither do I. At times this season I’ve wondered whether he’s a scrappy defensive midfielder stuck in a wispy attacker’s body. It’s not all his fault, and it doesn’t reflect well on Leeds’ recruitment team both past and present. As Angus Kinnear told us in the summer:

“We built the scouting team up so they’re watching hours and hours of video footage to try and find the right players, and they talked a lot about it, they just couldn’t find a player that was going to be significantly better than Brenden Aaronson.”
…
“I think if we’d have signed Brenden Aaronson this summer, even at half the price we actually signed him for in the Premier League, everybody would think that was a very credible replacement at number 10 at Championship level.”

The problem is Leeds did sign him in the Premier League, and did sign him for what Kinnear seems to have acknowledged was at least twice as much as Aaronson is worth.

But this is where I do have a semblance of sympathy for Aaronson. He didn’t set his price tag, and he wasn’t part of the boardrooms making stupid decisions at his last two clubs. Farke is the eighth club manager to coach Aaronson in the last two-and-half seasons; thirteenth if you include the five coaches he has had at international level during that time. No wonder he looks so confused whenever he gets the ball at his feet.

The most Brenden Aaronson thing I’ve ever read

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— Rob Conlon (@robconlon.bsky.social) 28 November 2024 at 16:25

After Leeds lost at Millwall in November, Farke gave Aaronson some advice that tallies with the frantic footballer we see from the stands, and the footballer Aaronson wants to be known as:

“If you have a look on the workload, he was the hardest-working player on the pitch yesterday. With him what I criticise a little bit, he was in a shooting position, I want my number 10 to be there with a finish, choose one corner of the goal, be more tidy in the finishing.
“We spoke at half-time, that he runs too much, that he overloads the wings and then in the decisive moments where it counts [he’s not ready]. This is out of good intention, his feeling for the positioning.
“[He has played a] different style of football before, for teams a bit more hectic. He has to channel it. If he calms his game down in some areas and moments, he will be in more concentrated positions to play the final pass or finish. If you play football with always pulse 200 [bpm] it’s hard to be cool in the head.”

Whether Aaronson has the capacity to listen and learn remains to be seen. Even if he just stops talking about redemption arcs and his unseen ability, he might find everyone is willing to cut him a bit more slack. It was a penny that never dropped with his old mentor Marsch at Leeds: actions speak louder than words. ⬢