This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.
Leeds bounced back from a tough result against Charlton last weekend to defeat previously unbeaten West Brom on Tuesday.
It appears that the mini-crisis is over at Elland Road following a run where they’d only won one of their last five games in all competitions.
Surprisingly, Marcelo Bielsa opted for an unchanged line-up, one which demonstrated his faith in the players he has at his disposal.
It paid off as they won 1-0 but it didn’t come without its troubles as the Baggies had the best of the possession, something that’s been a rarity for a Leeds team who have averaged over 60% this term across all matches.
It was in the final quarter of the match that they were really up against it, however.
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Snapshot
Leeds opened the scoring in the first half courtesy of Gjanni Alioski. Jack Harrison held the ball up well on the left-hand side and then laid it on a plate for the left-back to fire into the bottom corner.
The Whites had 19 shots but failed to score another goal as Slaven Bilic’s men aimed to extend their unbeaten run.
Bielsa chose to go incredibly defensive in the final 15 minutes as he replaced Tyler Roberts, who had already been brought on, with Luke Ayling.
Off the bench
This was a strange substitution to make, especially considering Roberts had only come on at half time. He was making just his second appearance of the campaign while Ayling came onto achieve his first minutes in the senior team since getting injured.
It was a risky call given presumably his lack of match fitness but it was one that looked to give the west Yorkshire side more control in midfield.
Stuart Dallas moved slightly further forward with Leeds looking weaker since Jamie Shackleton was withdrawn because of injury.
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However, putting on another defender only invited more pressure on Leeds’ defence.
Bielsa made a similar call against Derby just over a week ago when he introduced Barry Douglas for an attacking player in Pablo Hernandez.
The Rams consequently scored and it might easily have happened again on this occasion. It was a risk but it was one that eventually paid off as they kept a clean sheet.
When Ayling came on, West Brom had 75% of the possession and achieved four of their ten shots, via WhoScored. Because of the lack of players to drive them up the pitch, they were unable to get on the ball regularly.
Leeds have now had two times to go in for the kill this season but have instead opted to sit back. This time it worked but against Derby it didn’t. The Argentine must learn from what happened in that game and be careful.