Leeds United defender ridiculed by official club account after post-match comments
Leeds United defender Joe Rodon has been made the subject of ridicule by Championship rivals Blackburn Rovers after the Lancashire club's 1-0 win over the Whites last weekend.
Leeds returned from Ewood Park with little to show for their efforts following a 1-0 defeat on the road.
A first-half Todd Cantwell penalty made all the difference after Ao Tanaka was deemed to have fouled inside Illan Meslier's area.
The result made it back-to-back wins-to-nil for Rovers against promotion contenders Middlesbrough and Leeds.
After the match, Leeds centre-back Rodon spoke with in-house media channel LUTV, briefly suggesting the home side had changed their usual approach and 'parked the bus' in an attempt to explain why United were beaten.
"When you don't score goals against these teams you know what they're going to do, it's what they always do, they change the system and park the bus.
“Of course, we can all say it's difficult to break down a team when they have got the whole team behind the ball. But when it's not our day, when those chances do come, you have to take them. We didn't and unfortunately we were punished," the Welsh international said, also adding he felt Leeds were 'naive' at times.
Blackburn's social media team appear to have jumped on Rodon's comments, posting a short-form TikTok video from the club's official account with Rodon's 'parked the bus' suggestion repeated over and over, alongside clips of Rovers' chances throughout the game.
Blackburn ended the match with 11 shots to Leeds' 13, including four big chances to United's one. The home side also accumulated 2.17 Expected Goals (xG) as opposed to Leeds' 1.28 xG, although much of that will have been from Cantwell's spot kick.
Nevertheless, Rovers' attempt to make Rodon a figure of fun garnered over 1,000 'likes' on social media platform X and over 500,000 views after being shared by a fan account, in addition to 5,000 'likes' on video-sharing platform TikTok where the clip was initially posted.
Leeds remain in the hunt for automatic promotion despite the weekend's results, sitting third in the Championship table after 18 matches, three points behind league leaders Sheffield United. Burnley are one point and one place ahead of United with 36 points after their victory at Stoke City.