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Why Marcelo Bielsa’s substitution was baffling in more ways than one – Opinion

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We won, so I’m not going to be overly critical.

And it means I can afford to cut Kiko Casilla some slack as well, because he actually had one of his better games, particularly with this save in the second half. However, there is one thing that happened last night that left me screaming ‘no that’s not right at all’.

I have spoken before, after Danny Mills touched on it (Talksport’s Sunday Exclusive 22/09, 1:30pm), that Leeds could end up relying on goal difference to save them at the end of the season. Which is why I found it rather bizarre when Marcelo Bielsa decided to bring off Tyler Roberts and replace him with Luke Ayling with fifteen minutes left. Not only was it weird to bring someone off who was only brought on at half-time, but because I feel keeping him on could have helped Leeds put the game to bed later on.

I can understand wanting to hold out for the victory against a team that came into the game as one of the top scoring teams in the Championship, but at the same time they have also conceded quite a lot of goals for far this season, so they were there for the taking. I feel that Leeds should have gone in for the kill last night with a couple of minutes to go.

As Phil Hay noted during the game, with the game opening up as West Brom pushed for an equaliser, there was plenty of opportunity for us to hit them on the counter-attack. That was the perfect time for us to introduce someone like Eddie Nketiah off the bench, some fresh legs to attack against a tiring defence and add another goal, or maybe even two.

As I said, we won the game so I’m not going to make a massive deal out of it and call for Bielsa to be sacked off the back of it (although I’m sure I’ll find a reason for that later in the season), but I just feel that the victory could have been a lot more wholesome and convincing if we’d have gambled for another goal rather than being content with what they had.

What about you? Do you think that Bielsa was right in not going in for the kill with his decision making last night? Or do you think that holding out for a 1-0 was the right call to make?

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