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Leeds United returned to winning ways on Saturday with a fantastic 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, and Anton Stach was among the players to praise defender Tarik Muharemovic.
Five Premier League games without a win, Leeds knew the importance of going into the November break with three points on the board. They did just that, with Daniel Farke vindicated after plenty of pressure.
The German gaffer got his tactics right, his tweak in formation correct, and his substitutions paid off. The winner finally came through two of his subs, as Harry Wilson found Noah Okafor to score on 79 minutes.
Okafor might take the headlines. Farke might do too, while James Trafford earned FotMob’s best rating (8.8). But it was Tarik Muharemovic who won the Premier League’s Player of the Match award yesterday.
Muharemovic has been immense for Leeds since his £34m arrival from Sassuolo. It will come as little surprise that the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan are all eyeing the £60m-rated star.
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But Leeds know the importance of the Bosnian. He has not missed a single minute of football this term, playing every minute of all 12 games in all competitions. He is one of Leeds’ most valuable players.
Having posted: “3 points, clean sheet” alongside a handful of images from the match, Muharemovic received plenty of praise from his teammates. Anton Stach compared the left-footed ace to “Maldini”.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin said, “You big tank”; Jayden Bogle commented, “what a player”; and Joe Rodon said, “star boy”. Wilson, meanwhile, teased his haircut, replying: “Barber put a magnet in that new trim”.
As aforementioned, Trafford won FotMob’s best rating on the day with a huge 8.8. But Muharemovic was in second place with 7.9, as Leeds secured a fifth Premier League clean sheet of the 2026-27 campaign.
The Bosnian enjoyed the most touches of any Leeds player (70), completing 39 of his 49 passes, including 12 line-breaking passes. The only other player on the pitch to produce 12 was Spurs’ Andy Robertson.
Not only that, but Muharemovic was one of three to complete a joint-first 14 defensive contributions on the day (Mateus Fernandes, Nico Elvedi). Wilson was right; Muharemovic made nine headed clearances.
The memory of Pascal Struijk has evaporated quickly in the minds of Leeds fans thanks to Muharemovic, not least because he won six of his seven duels on Saturday. A bargain, despite costing a huge £34m.