Leeds United transfer target gets unanimous verdict of LaLiga and Bundesliga experts amid questions

If Marc Roca’s time at Bayern Munich has not worked out as he hoped it is not for the want of trying or a lack of ability.

That’s the view of La Liga and Bundesliga experts who all rave about the midfielder’s ball-playing prowess and note similar concerns around physicality.

It does not take much more than a glance at the 25-year-old’s career to detect shades of Junior Firpo or even the White who almost was, Michael Cuisance.

A move to an elite club that arguably represented too much, too soon, and therefore didn’t yield the success or regular game time that the player wanted and needed.

For Firpo it was a move to Barcelona from Real Betis, while for Roca and Cuisance it was the leap to Bayern Munich from Espanyol and Borussia Mönchengladbach respectively.

Leeds handed Firpo a chance to rebuild, were dead set on doing the same for Cuisance until that deal collapsed at the 11th hour and could now make Roca their next restoration project. But there is an important difference between Cuisance and Roca’s time at Bayern that ESPN’s Bundesliga reporter Archie Rhind-Tutt is keen to highlight.

“Roca was one of these players that Hasan Salihamidzic had his eye on for a while and he came into a Bayern squad where getting in between or getting in front of Leon Goretzka or Joshua Kimmich is just nigh on impossible,” Rhind-Tutt told the YEP.

“And then there was the moment this season where he finally got his shot of having three or four games in the Bundesliga in a row and played really well. Julian Nagelsmann spoke up about how much he liked him and really picked him out for praise. But when the players above him in the pecking order came back, he no longer got the game time. So it’s understandable that he wants to move on. That he picked him out for praise, you never heard anyone do the same for Cuisance. And actually it says a lot for his persistence that he was eventually given a shot and he did take it, albeit for a short period of time.”

A deep-lying midfield operator who Leeds see as potential back-up for Kalvin Phillips, Roca is ‘everything you would want’ in a possession player and someone with high technical quality in Rhind-Tutt’s eyes.

That has been the case since he emerged at Espanyol.

“Roca is a variation of Rodri, but the Rodri that first arrived to the Premier League,” Guillem Balague of CBS and La Liga TV told the YEP.

“His distribution is very good. He’s a little bit like the [Toni] Kroos of Espanyol. But drop a couple of levels and you get there – obviously he’s not as good as Kroos but he’s got good short passing, clever passing up front, not like Kroos with 50 metres accurate passing, not yet. He does see a pass. For the possession game he’s absolutely brilliant, is good at reacting as well.”

Jamie Kemp, an editor at Opta, and Colin Millar, The Mirror’s European football writer, echo Balague’s view.

“Roca was technically excellent and appeared almost certain to make the step up to the Spain senior international scene,” said Millar.

“High in-game intelligence and passing.”

Kemp added: “His breakout season was in 2018/19 at Espanyol, which timed with the club moving to a more progressive manager in Rubi, who started to harness his quality in possession. His best football there came while playing as the deepest of three midfielders – he was their main outlet for controlling possession and helping to build spells of play.

“It’s really on that side of the ball where he’s at his best – getting his touches in, feeling connected to the game, moving the ball with purpose. He really was climbing up the hierarchy of Spanish midfielders at that point and he looked primed to be quite special.”

Kemp’s concern is that he struggles to see Roca slotting seamlessly into what he calls the ‘more erratic environment’ of Jesse Marsch’s high-pressing style.

That and how he will cope with the Premier League’s physical demands are the only real notes of caution from those who have watched his career develop so far.

“He’s not got the biggest stature, the biggest presence, which might be something in the Premier League given how you generally have destroyers in that position from what I see,” said Rhind-Tutt.

Millar agrees, although argues that Roca cannot be judged on less than 1,000 minutes of football at Bayern Munich and suggests it might be possible to compensate for any deficiency in physicality.

“He notably lacked athleticism [in Spain] and I reckon the physicality aspect is a concern but it all depends on who is around him, the system, et cetera,” said the Mirror man.

“My question is physically, he may struggle at first,” added Balague, who last summer predicted Firpo’s problems at Leeds might come, as they did, in one v one defending.

“Because he hasn’t played regularly for the last two years, three years you’ll have to see, there’s always a question mark, especially about the pace – he wasn’t the fastest. It’s difficult to get the ball off him but he used to take too many risks, although they [Bayern] might have taken that out of his game.”

The Spanish pundit does see lots of room for optimism alongside any potential issues.

“Because he has been in Germany he must be stronger than he was when he was in Spain,” he told the YEP.

“He’s a clever boy and he will absorb things and you know, he will adapt his game, there’s no doubt about it. And he’s got a lot of personality as well.”

If they sign him – Roca is one of a number of options they’re exploring – Leeds are not expecting the 25-year-old to arrive at the same level as Premier League ‘destroyer’ Phillips, but as with every signing there is an element of risk and a dose of the unknown.

There are also considerable upsides, not least that he will be hungry to put his career back on track and prove he belongs in one of Europe’s top leagues.