How £20 million-rated Leeds United-linked Robin Koch fared for Freiburg as Bundesliga made its return

On transfer deadline day last January, Leeds' director of football Victor Orta revealed the club's interest in Freiburg defender Robin Koch to the Yorkshire Evening Post, and the Germany international has been continually linked with the Whites since - in the British media and further afield.

On Saturday afternoon, we cracked open an ice-cold Erdinger or two, and kept a keen eye on the 23-year-old during his side's clash against title-challengers RB Leipzig. We weren't the only ones, it seems, with Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani posting a tweet revealing he was also tuning in. Here's how Koch got on:

Position:

Positional versatility is becoming an increasingly attractive quality in footballers, and Koch boasts the ability to operate competently both as a central defender and midfielder - on this occasion, he played the latter role in a 3-4-3 formation, which is something he's done here and there throughout the campaign.

Positives:

One facet of Koch's play that really stood out was the quality and variety of his passing. The former FC Kaiserslautern man didn't find himself on the ball too often in a game dominated by the hosts, but he excelled when allowed to showcase his talent for moving the ball with confidence.

He also impressed with his last-ditch defending. Notably, around the half-hour mark, he put his body on the line to prevent a vicious Kevin Kampl shot troubling goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow.

Koch closed down and frustrated his opponents throughout the first half, forcing them to pass up shooting opportunities, or blast the ball directly into his sleek frame.

Negatives:

While he impressed with some heroic blocking as his side put in a fine defensive team effort, Koch was often caught ball-watching, and failed to notice smart runs around and behind him from the onrushing Leipzig attacking unit.

He also had a golden opportunity to double his side's lead late on in the second half, but lacked the pace to get on the end of Christian Gunter's vicious cross/shot that zipped just wide of Peter Gulacsi's far post.

In fairness, though, it would be asking a lot of a player who's spent the majority of his career in the heart of defence to show the razor-sharp positional awareness of a lethal striker - especially as his side haven't played in over two months.

The cross for Leipzig's equaliser came from an area of the pitch where Koch should, in his role on the right side of a central midfielder pairing, have been marshalling when out of possession, but his drifting out of position allowed Kampl to deliver a precision cross for Yussuf Poulsen to emphatically head home the equaliser.

The stats:

With RB Leipzig pressing relentlessly throughout the match when without the ball, Koch was put under a fair bit of pressure with the ball at his feet, but still managed a respectable 81% accuracy on his short passes.

He was involved in 20 aerial duels, and won 14 of them; that's pretty impressive going. Koch also made eight interceptions over the course of the match, and recovered possessions on five occasions.

That said, he lost possession on a far from ideal 17 occasions, five of which were in his own half.

Would he be a good signing for Leeds?

It depends where Marcelo Bielsa would want to play him, really. In midfield, he looked a little out of place, and is clearly more comfortable in a deeper position with the ball in front of him.

However, there's no chance he'd push Kalvin Phillips out of a starting spot, that's for sure.

With Ben White likely to be back at Brighton next season, Koch could be an ideal candidate to fill the void and partner Liam Cooper in Leeds' back-line, offering both an intimidating presence in the air, and the ability to pick out dazzling long-range passes from defence.