SIMON JONES: Mindful midfielder Marc Roca is set to light up Leeds

Marc Roca may not be the quickest of players but for Leeds United's new £10.4million signing, the game is all in the mind.

A deep thinker, advocate of meditation and avid reader, the Spaniard, who is joining from Bayern Munich, recommends Awaken the Giant Within by American motivational guru Tony Robbins as his go-to book before bedtime.

It's a stirring philosophy Leeds supporters will be hoping he can transfer to the pitch after the 25-year-old failed to have his desired impact on the Bundesliga.

Roca arrived in Bavaria from Espanyol with great expectations in 2020 amid interest from Barcelona and Arsenal. He models his game on former Liverpool maestro Xabi Alonso, however, a combination of injuries and stellar competition meant the majority of his time at Bayern was spent in the first team shadows.

His mentality has never been in question but speed and intensity sometimes are.

'He can compensate for his weaknesses with good positional play,' insists Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann. 'He is very hardworking and always willing to listen.'

That said, Nagelsmann preferred to leave Roca on the bench until giving him a surprise start against Stuttgart last December. A 5-0 win ensued and a contrite Nagelsmann admitted: 'I praised him in the dressing room. 

'I don’t usually praise individual players in front of the others but he deserved it. The way he fought and gave everything was impressive. I love the kind of players who prove the coach wrong and show it was a mistake not to play them often.'

Such resilience was forged as a boy growing up in Barcelona taking tips from elder brothers Pere and Eric who became his biggest critics. 

'When I started with the Espanyol professionals,' said Roca, 'I had phases with little playing