Leeds United star Joe Rodon outlines plan after international duty setback with honest admission

Leeds United star Joe Rodon has made an honest admission with a standards declaration and recovery plan after an international duty setback.

Whites trio Rodon, Ethan Ampadu and Karl Darlow all started Thursday night’s international friendly against England at a sold-out Wembley where the Dragons found themselves three goals down after just 20 minutes en route to a 3-0 defeat.

England’s first two goals arrived from set pieces and Rodon delivered an honest verdict about his side’s defending when speaking to post-match media, declaring that Wales needed to be more resilient and harder to break down.

Rodon, though, refused to shirk from the issue of taking on teams like England, insisting it was the only way for his country to improve in a clear declaration of standards ahead of Monday night’s huge World Cup qualifier against Belgium.

The plan now, said Rodon, was to forget about the disappointment of Thursday’s defeat and recover to go again on Monday night.

“Otherwise you don't learn anything”

"I think overall it's a big learning experience for us,” said Rodon post-match to Sgorio.

"It shows the level we want to get to, where we want to keep improving and these are the teams that we want to keep playing. Otherwise you don't learn anything.

"But the first two goals, set pieces, that's not us. We have got to be more resilient and be harder to break down and of course the first half wasn't our best performance.

"We showed some good parts in the second half but overall not good enough."

Pressed on how tough it was to be 3-0 down with just 20 minutes played, Rodon admitted: "You play against top teams, you get punished for these mistakes.

"But it's not something we can dwell on.

"But we have got to forget about it now, we have got a massive game on Monday and we all look forward to it.

"We just get back, recover and get ready to go again Monday."