Opinion: Marcelo Bielsa still has a lot of questions to answer over Ian Poveda

This kind of explains something, and at the same time it leaves me asking even more questions.

He can’t do anything straight forward can he?

I wrote a few days ago about the situation surrounding Ian Poveda, and how we could be on for another Eddie Nketiah situation on our hands as Poveda finds himself struggling to get minutes under Marcelo Bielsa.

Well, the Leeds boss somewhat addressed the situation during his press conference ahead of today’s game with Bristol City, saying that “I always organised the substitutes with two defenders, two midfielders and two strikers”.

So he gave an answer, but I’m not entirely sure it’s what the Leeds United fans were hoping for. This fan probably puts it best when he says “Why is Poveda not one of them”? And that’s the question I found myself asking earlier, and I still find myself asking now.

Surely in the January transfer window, you want to bring in players that are going to make your team better straight away, rather than holding them back and keeping them out of the squad altogether. If Poveda had been on the bench, I’d give Bielsa a little bit more leeway in this situation, because at least it shows that the intention is there to use him.

But if he isn’t going to put him in the matchday team, then what was the point in bringing him in?

Either he is good enough to make a difference to the side and he is simply being held back, or he isn’t good enough for the team yet and the reason he signed until 2024 is because he was a signing ‘for the future’.  Whichever way you look at it, the decision to sign him just isn’t making sense at this point, and it is time Bielsa started proving that it was worth us forking out for him.

And today’s game against Bristol City would be the perfect time to put that plan into action.