The eternal Llorente

When Diego Llorente arrived in the Eternal City, I was excited because a) I love Italian football and b) he seemed primed to be the next in a long line of ex-Leeds ‘flops’ to flourish abroad. After a rocky start and a good few weeks warming the bench, he started to shine, but now he’s (possibly) broken. You can take the boy out of Leeds United etc etc.

Llorente is a perfect metaphor for Leeds, in that both were really good two years ago. Moving to Rome was the best thing for him and not just because he looks like a substitute history teacher, but because it’s the capital city of the homeland of defending. Alright, Italian football has moved away from that old stereotype of ultra-defensive football, but the game remains a tactical battle there, where precision beats power every time.

Serie A has become a rehab centre for defenders brutalised by an ultra-capitalist Premier League that chews players up and spits them out. Just look at Chris Smalling, once a laughing stock of Laughing Stock FC, now Roma’s Caesar. Some nice weather, good food and a few less sovereign wealth funds make for a perfect environment to improve as a footballer.

His first six weeks at Roma didn’t give me much hope that we’d get to see a new Diego, or that £18m we were promised for letting him go permanently. He got a minute off the bench against Empoli before being substituted at half-time in the Europa League against his old club Real Sociedad. The only difference between his time in Rome and Leeds up to this point was that all the old Roman rubble is thanks to folks like Attila the Hun, while Leeds has Thatcher to blame.

Fast forward to today and Llorente is on the fast track to Serie A defender folklore. Okay, maybe a little bit of exaggeration, but he’s playing better than most people ever expected him to. A half-season warming the bench or getting torn apart by Brentford and Cardiff isn’t good for any man’s reputation, so the bar was pretty low, but Diego’s spell at Roma has been mostly positive.

He came on at half-time against Lazio after Ibanez had been stupidly sent off, and was taken off with ten minutes left as Roma tried to equalise, a real baptism by fire in the fiercest of derbies. Think of it like Charlie Cresswell entering the cauldron at the Galpharm next season.

Between Mattia Zaccagni’s goal that day and Mario Pasalic’s for Atalanta on Monday night, Roma went 394 minutes without conceding while Llorente was on the pitch. Now, that’s a whole lot easier when you are one of the better sides in the division — perhaps why Leeds haven’t kept four clean sheets since March 2020 — but it’s fuelling my belief in the Diego Llorente Serie A rehab project.

Playing in a back three, he looks a lot more comfortable playing as the covering defender either side of two good centre-backs in a José Mourinho system. Strong, cohesive defending and a penchant for winning games, it sounds dreamy doesn’t it? Maybe we should just sack this Premier League thing off and support Roma, or move the Leeds United soccer franchise to Italy. Seems like something the 49ers would enjoy.

Llorente’s toughest test to date came against Atalanta and Duvan Zapata, a striker who, on his day, runs like Patrick Bamford, finishes like Mark Viduka and has the physique of a cruiserweight boxer. Diego had the big Colombian striker in his pocket right until he didn’t, when Zapata shrugged him off and ran wide, crossing for Pasalic to score. Nothing to be ashamed of, really.

For another half an hour, he had it all under control, until a moment of bad luck in the 74th minute. After some poor defending from Ibanez, Atalanta defender Rafael Toloi’s shot hits Llorente’s head and it’s in.

Ten minutes later, moments after Roma had scored to make it 2-1, Llorente shepherded a ball over the top into the arms of his goalkeeper, Rui Patricio, who decided to spill the ball directly to Atalanta’s Teun Koopmeiners to make it 3-1. Diego thought to ask the ex-Wolves man what had happened, and presumably the response referred to some Premier League conspiracy to keep Wolves out of Europe.

The game ended with Llorente crying in the dugout after pulling up sharply with a hamstring injury. Hopefully he isn’t badly hurt and was just in tears at the thought that Roma might send him back to Leeds to face Coventry and Luton next season.

Given his struggles this season, were Leeds right to get rid of him? Maybe, but most of the rest of our defenders are rubbish, so who knows. But it’s easier to enjoy Llorente’s eccentricity now he’s not doing it in front of the Kop as we’re getting thrashed by [insert Premier League team name]. It’ll be fun when he’s playing for Juventus with Willy Gnonto in a couple of years. ⬢