Leeds United lined up a little differently to how we expected them to on Saturday.
Marcelo Bielsa claimed before the game that it would be the same squad that travelled to the KCOM to play Hull City, but by the time 2pm rolled around, there was no sign of Kalvin Phillips.
This saw Gaetano Berardi come into the starting XI, leaving a spot open on the bench.
Surely this was Ian Poveda’s chance to make the matchday squad after weeks and weeks of being left out, but it wasn’t to be.
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Bielsa actually went against his own word, he’s previously stated that he likes his bench to line up with two defenders, two midfielders and two attackers, but for some reason, he had four defenders on his bench against Huddersfield, and just one attacking player in the shape of Tyler Roberts.
Having two left-backs and two centre-backs on the bench seems a bit overkill, and it would have made the world of sense for Bielsa to have put Poveda in as an option to give himself a bit more attacking dynamism if it was needed.
Not only is snubbing the youngster a baffling decision, but it also sends out completely the wrong message to him, especially when he’s contradicting his own comments from a few weeks ago.
Imagine how Poveda is feeling right now, he’s joined a new club after ditching Man City due to reportedly becoming unhappy with only playing U23 football, and he’s still finding himself unable to make his breakthrough in senior football despite dropping down into the Championship.
The 20-year-old has every right to storm into Bielsa’s office on Monday and demand an explanation as to why he wasn’t put into the squad against Huddersfield. As an outsider looking in, it’s hard to get your head around it.
In other news, there could be one big casualty at Leeds if they go up.
