Stuart Dallas tells Brenden Aaronson exactly where to improve after West Ham goal

Brenden Aaronson produced his best performance of the season to help Leeds United beat West Ham on Friday, but he’s already being told what he needs to do next.

The United States international went into the match without a single direct goal involvement in eight Premier League appearances this season, passing up a number of good opportunities and failing to provide a creative spark.

However, Aaronson struck just three minutes into Friday night’s clash at Elland Road, pouncing in the box as West Ham failed to clear their lines.

Leeds doubled their advantage just 12 minutes later through a Joe Rodon header from a corner, before holding out until the 90th minute, when Mateus Fernandes scored what ultimately turned out to be a consolation strike for the visitors.

Stuart Dallas makes Brenden Aaronson demand after Leeds win

Goal aside, Aaronson was a menace throughout the night. The former Philadelphia Union man posted match-highs for shots (3) and successful dribbles (3), while he was the only Leeds player to create more than one chance (2).

Aaronson’s performance comes off the back of last week’s 2-0 defeat to Burnley, in which he missed a great opportunity when the Whites were still only 1-0 down.

As such, this was the perfect way to respond to critics who claim he’s nothing more than a workhorse. That’s been recognised by former Leeds stalwart Stuart Dallas, though he still believes Aaronson needs to provide more goals and assists.

“I think with Brenden, he does a lot of work off the ball. I think at times, he’s underappreciated in this system that Daniel wants to play. And his numbers haven’t been good enough for an attacking player at Leeds,” Dallas - who played 266 times for Leeds between 2015 and 2022 - said following Friday’s win.

“He needs to be producing better assists or better, more goals, more assists. He was unlucky last week. He probably should have scored.

“But tonight I thought he was excellent. You know, he got his goal early on, which obviously gave him a bit of confidence. And yeah, hopefully he can start to grow now.”

Brenden Aaronson admits ‘relief’ at West Ham goal

Aaronson himself has expressed ‘relief’ at getting on the scoresheet, claiming he ‘let the team down’ against Burnley and needed to atone for his error.

"It was a relief for me to be honest with you,” the attacking midfielder said.

"From letting the team down a little bit last week and not scoring, it was tough mentally because you don't get many chances in this league, so it was difficult for a moment of time.

"But I kept at it, I worked this whole week on my finishing again. I am proud of my mentality and I am proud of the group."

Leeds have climbed to 13th in the table following their third win of the season, and they’ll now prepare for a testing trip to Brighton next week.

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