Leeds United loanee Marc Roca played the full 90 minutes for Real Betis in their 1-0 win over Aris Limassol in the Europa League and the Spanish media weren't particularly impressed by his performance.

The former Bayern Munich maestro has enjoyed a fruitful loan spell at the La Liga giants, with a permanent transfer already on the cards according to several reports in Spain (Mucho Deporte, 25 October).

Roca scored just once and assisted twice in the Premier League last term across 36 appearances, but has netted twice and assisted another in just 13 outings already this season, drawing frank praise from Spanish outlet AS (23 October).

However, after his display for Betis in their Europa League group-stage tie against Cypriot side Aris on Thursday night (26 October), Spanish online outlet El Desmarque criticised him after he was deployed in an unfamiliar centre-back role.

After handing him a "5/10 rating, they wrote: "He is not a central defender by trade and it shows. Some defensive problem behind his back, better when he played the duels from the front. His great advantage in this position is his excellent left foot for launching the ball."

It seems pretty evident that Roca is at his best in his homeland, having struggled in the Premier League and only featured sparingly in the Bundesliga, but thrived for Espanyol previously and now improved again with Betis.

In fact, his performance against Aris on Thursday wasn't bad at all and given the role he was deployed in, he performed rather brilliantly making this criticism very harsh.

As per SofaScore, Roca won 100% of his aerial duels, two of his three ground duels, registered two key passes, successfully completed 11 of his 15 long balls and 50% of his crosses while also creating one big chance.

What the Spanish media were watching from that game, we simply do not know because it's evidently clear Roca enjoyed another brilliant performance in Betis colours as they recorded a much-needed clean sheet on their road to progress into the knockout stages.

All things being equal it seems highly likely that both Leeds United and Betis would like to do a permanent deal at the end of the season, and given the way he's performing right now, the Whites will claim a healthy windfall for his services.

A great and sensible deal for all parties involved after he ran the show again for his club in Cyprus.

In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay has shared Daniel Farke's priorities.

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