What Jaka Bijol will bring to Leeds: Patience, aerial strength and football intelligence

New York Times

5 days ago

Leeds United have completed their second transfer of the summer window — Jaka Bijol has finalised a £15million move from Udinese after three seasons and 90 Serie A appearances.
At 26, Bijol is entering the prime years of his career and Leeds hope they will see the best of the Slovenia international at the heart of their defence. He is right-footed, but the pressure for starts is likely to be on left-sided Pascal Struijk initially.
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Bijol has played on the right of a back three for Udinese too, which gives manager Daniel Farke another option next term if he does wish to move away from his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.
Leeds are delighted to have got their man after several weeks of talks, but why did they go for him and what will he bring to Elland Road?
On first impressions, you would be forgiven for thinking Bijol, at 6ft 3in (191cm) with a big frame, is a front-footed, aggressive defender who goes steaming into challenges.
However, a closer look at his performances with Udinese tells a different story.
Generally, Bijol is a more patient defender, who waits for moments to be aggressive and assertive. His true tackles per 1,000 opposition touches — a metric that combines tackles won, tackles lost and fouls committed while attempting a tackle, to give us an indication of how often he looks to stick a foot in when his team don't have the ball — tells us more about his defending.
Of all central defenders with at least 900 minutes in Serie A last term, Bijol was 35th out of 74 for this metric. This marks him out as quite passive in this regard. In other words, he is not going to go charging into tackles too frequently.
When he does commit to challenging an opponent, his success rate is quite low. Bijol only has a win rate of 50 per cent with his 'true tackles', which puts him 72nd among those 74 centre-backs with 900-plus minutes. His league-high tally of 13 yellow cards underlines the issues he faces when he goes to win the ball.
While his tackling ability may be lacking, there is a lot more to modern defending than sticking a foot in. Bijol has shown he prefers to sit off and sweep up for Udinese. With Leeds, you could envisage Joe Rodon as the traditional stopper who steps out of the backline, while Bijol covers behind him.
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He does generally defend the space well and ranked highly in Serie A for clearances, interceptions and aerials — only three players in the division made more than his 182 clearances.
There was a passage of play from Udinese's last game of the season which neatly summarises Bijol's traits. As Luca Ranieri goes to pass from Fiorentina's defence, Bijol has found himself high up the field from a previous phase.
Bijol reads the pass and intercepts. That's good, but his subsequent attempt to pass forward is then picked out by opponent Amir Richardson. In an attempt to rectify his error, Bijol then goes in late and hard on Richardson, who pokes the ball away before the collision. Bijol was booked.
United's new centre-back's interception rate does underline his anticipation and football intelligence. He can read the game and understand when it's the right time to step out of the backline to apply pressure.
In the same Fiorentina game, he can sense Nicolo Fagioli will receive the ball after the next pass. Bijol steps out and pushes his opponent all the way back to the edge of his own area.
Bijol's aerial dominance is where he stands out most and may have been the key attribute Leeds were looking for. United expect to be defending their box for long periods of many games next season, plus they need to find an edge in each penalty area at set pieces.
Only four players in Serie A won more aerial duels than Bijol in 2024-25. A fraction later in the same Fiorentina game, there is one image which illustrates the defender's immense leap.
A high ball comes towards the centre circle from the away goalkeeper. Lucas Beltran has designs on taking the ball in, but Bijol watches it all the way, runs to the ball and gets his waist to Beltran's head height with his jump. Possession was retained with that header too.
When he has the ball at his feet, Bijol frequently looked for long passes last season — no Serie A centre-back attempted more than he did in 2024-25.
On the right in a central two or wider back three, the former CSKA Moscow man enjoys targeting the flanks with flighted passes over the top, but as the progressive passing zones show below, Bijol is able to move the ball through the centre too.
Playing on the right of a back three for Udinese in that Fiorentina game, you can see below how he moves wider with the ball, almost to the right-back slot. Bijol looks up and sees the right wing-back asking for the ball in behind.
Bijol clears the opposition defenders, Kingsley Ehizibue brings the ball down and Udinese have a platform to attack from the final third in the space of one pass.
Bijol is confident when carrying the ball too. He drives forward from defence with the ball at his feet.
Only seven players across the division travelled further, towards the opponents' goal, than Bijol with the ball during last season. He had the most touches in the opposition box of all Serie A centre-backs last year, though those are, most commonly, from attacking corners or free kicks.
When Jaka Bijol stopped a move in his own box and finished one at the other end 🔀#MonzaUdinese pic.twitter.com/i5fpGBFkco
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) June 13, 2025
This clip from Serie A last season is the most impressive and eye-catching thing Bijol did. It shows several different attributes in one passage. There's a lot for Farke to work with.
First, there is the interception after anticipating the danger, before the calm pass into an advanced team-mate. The football intelligence and ambition to get up the field is pretty clear.
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Bijol can sense Monza are exposed and he takes flight. He does get a touch lucky with a ricochet off the goalkeeper, but he turned the ball over in his box and scored at the other end inside 20 seconds.
Bijol is not going to be the perfect centre-back. If he was, he would be going for five times the amount Leeds have paid to a Champions League contender. This is the next logical step up for him from Serie A's mid-table to the Premier League.
His tackling success rate is one concern to flag, but Farke and the recruitment analysts will have been well aware of that fact before pursuing him. However, Bijol's tendency to sit off and avoid putting his foot in is no bad thing at all.
The data suggests he can read play, anticipate danger, pick the right moments to be aggressive and, if it's in the air, he is going to be a match for most opponents. If Farke wants Leeds to go long with their passing or for his defenders to carry the ball into midfield, he has demonstrated that with Udinese too.
(Header photo:)