Brenden Aaronson’s impactful return to Leeds United has not gone unnoticed by the fanbase.
Aaronson was named Player of the Month for August, the club announced Friday. The U.S. men’s national team attacker has helped the Lilywhites to an unbeaten start to EFL Championship play this season.
In his first competitive match back at Elland Road, Aaronson came off the bench to score the tying goal against Portsmouth in a 3-3 draw.
He followed that goalscoring performance up by netting the eventual winning goal in a 2-0 triumph over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.
In total, Aaronson has featured in all five of Leeds United’s matches across all competitions.
The 23-year-old earned 28% of the votes for the award, and was followed up by Mateo Joseph (20%), Junior Firpo (16%) and Pascal Struijk (11%).
Aaronson is back in Daniel Farke’s squad for Saturday’s home showdown with seventh-place Burnley. He featured in both of the USMNT’s September friendlies vs. Canada and New Zealand.
couldn’t be happier for a player
never pouted in his life, just goes for it, ultimate teammate, and now working with his belief rebuilt again. He’s playing well, has been playing well for a while now, and I really enjoy watching him play.
so much more than just a pressing player labelled by so many. Simply wrong on that assessment.
Leeds fans don’t deserve him and as said for many seasons now, including before the Leeds move, go play in Italy or Spain!
Aaronson’s always been a good player who was unfortunately priced like an elite player. He isn’t pretty, he isn’t fast, but he’s coachable, versatile, intelligent, has an iron set of lungs, and is willing to work HARD for his team. On top of which, he’s very technical, has a really tight turn radius, and can play on the turn in a shoebox. His big issues really are lack of size, lack of top-end acceleration – when Messi, another small guy, turns it on, he’s past you before you knew he was hitting the gas – and a lack of collision radar (again, which guys like Messi have; they’re basically bats and seem to sense contact coming without even having to see it.) Still, given Aaronson’s obvious strengths, if Leeds hadn’t spent $30 million on him they’d have been delighted with what they had in him, and as he showed last year in the B1, whether he’s an EPL player remains an open question but he can certainly make it in any other league on the planet.
I’ve been highly critical of the selection of Aaronson for the USMNT since 2022, but not the actual player, puts it all on the line for every game. He actually had a Great first few months at Leeds in 2022, but never seemed like the same player after the World Cup.
He is easily knocked off the ball, much like his teammates Balo, Cardoso, and de La Torre, (and at times CP10) and it seemed like Gregg practically built these teams to give up possession easily.
I am rooting for BA, but right now, he is not good enough for the Premier league or Bundesliga.
He was actually starting in the Bundesliga by late September/early October last year and was a pretty regular starter for Union Berlin after that.
They almost certainly would have wanted him back…but the problem, again, is his price tag. Leeds was trying to recoup as much of that $30 million they spent to get him and that was just too rich for Union Berlin’s blood.
He didn’t do well in the Prem, but he did fairly well with Union Berlin last season.
“lack of size, lack of top-end acceleration – when Messi, another small guy, turns it on, he’s past you before you knew he was hitting the gas – and a lack of collision radar (again, which guys like Messi have; they’re basically bats and seem to sense contact coming without even having to see it.”
Brenden lists at 5′ 10, 150 pounds.
CP lists at 5’10” 161, Landon was 5’8″ 155 pounds, DMB listed at 5’8″.
The excuse that he has a size problem is just that, an excuse.
He’s like an upsized Paul Ariolla (5’6″, 146 pounds) except with more skill. As critical as I am of Paul I don’t see him getting pushed around easily.
CP, Landon, DMB and Paul all managed to adapt to their “lack of size”.
Since he moved to Leeds, Brenden has not. When he was going through his bad period, he was just a beat off. But at this level, a miss is as good as a mile. He deserves a great deal of credit for working his way back to where he is now but when you cost as much as he did, they usually give as much leeway as they can to earn back your lost value.
I hope he proves my doubts are baseless but it remains to be seen if he can consistently raise his game to yet another level which is what he is going to have to do if he wants to stay relevant to the USMNT.
What are you even arguing with? CP, Landon, and DMB all had that burst of acceleration that allowed them to separate from a defender…as I said, Aaronson’s doesn’t. Arriola is a fireplug; he’s not large but he’s stout and hard to just muscle off the ball. It’s also hard to shoulder a guy off the ball when his shoulder’s half a foot below yours.
Aaronson’s slightly-built and lacks acceleration. Which is exactly what caught up to him in the Prem.
Quozzel
“What are you even arguing with?”
With you. You said Brenden’s problems have to do with his “lack of size”
It’s not that straight forward.
Never mind the guys I listed, you could easily find another 11 successful midfielder/wingers who are approximately his “size”. Some of them are quicker, some of them stronger , some of them have more “soccer IQ”, some of them deal with tackles better, etc.
All players eventually figure out how to deal with getting “bodied” off the ball. Charlie Davies was a very good wrestler in college and understood leverage instinctively.
BA needs just a shade more quickness. If he were just a beat quicker, he would have that much more time to make his moves, get off his shot, etc. Right now he’s just a beat behind, though I can see that that is getting better. He will need that to improve his goal contributions which is what is most important for him.