Leeds suffered their biggest defeat of the season against West Brom on Saturday and some fans questioned the substitutions made by manager Marcelo Bielsa.
West Brom moved up to the play-off places after the thumping, while Leeds slipped down to third, after being blown away by four second-half goals.
A consolation late on from Pablo Hernandez gave a slight respectability to the scoreline for Leeds but this was a terrible afternoon at the Hawthorns.
COMMENTARY
Bielsa took three of his strongest players off, starting with Kemar Roofe in the 66th minute and then Barry Douglas (73rd minute) and Mateusz Klich (78th minute). Douglas wasn’t happy at being taken off and ended up apologising for his reaction after the game. However, some Leeds fans weren’t happy with the moves by Bielsa, and took to Twitter to say what they thought. It seems to have split the fans down the middle. Some were furious that he took the players off he did, rather than Ezgjan Alioski, who they think has been the weakest Leeds player all season. Others were quick to rally round Bielsa, with one saying that Leeds are still third in the table. Another said Bielsa has “earned the right to make mistakes”. Fans have been calling for Alioski to be dropped for weeks and couldn’t understand how he stayed on the pitch, along with Stuart Dallas, while Douglas went off. Bielsa tried to explain his decision after the game, saying that he needed to take a risk and that it was no reflection on Douglas’ performance. It’s too early to say that these are the first cracks appearing in the relationship between manager and fans – you can expect some dissent after a 4-1 defeat – but the fans have decided who they see as the weak link in the side and it’s not Douglas.
Here are the best reactions from fans:
https://twitter.com/robhlufc/status/1061630802046390272
https://twitter.com/CallumFGamesYT/status/1061637403977367554
His substitutions yesterday were truly shocking, how Dallas stayed on the pitch I will never know & agree completely with the comments about Allioski
— Paul Jackson (@pjacko2060) November 11, 2018
Bielsa has earned the right to make mistakes.
— Brian Les (@brianlese) November 11, 2018
Bad day all round but I would never have taken Douglas off before Alioski. I clearly must be missing something #lufc
— Chris Wheeler (@ChrisHWheeler) November 11, 2018
To take a natural player off to replace him with another player that shouldnt be in our team.
— Richard Mcgill (@richardmcgill20) November 11, 2018
Never like to me be too negative but it didn’t really work
— george (@Gleelee123) November 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/daveybuoysmith/status/1061642201481003010
Why on earth didn’t he hook the useless Alioski the guy is robbing a living
— CM (@mou19645) November 11, 2018
#lufc Bielsa is wrong. Two players only per position is not enough. Exposing Dallas at right back is proof. It might work if we had two quality players for each position but were woefully short of that
— Eireleeds1?? (@kevingaff) November 12, 2018