OPINION
Leeds United missed out on promotion down to many reasons with Marcelo Bielsa being hampered by many setbacks throughout his first season at Elland Road.
The Whites eventually finished third after spending the majority of the season at the top of the table, and eventually missed out on the Premier League after losing to Derby County in the playoff semi-finals.
As usual, controversy was never far away from Elland Road, with many different issues affecting Leeds on and off the pitch. Spygate was in the national media for many weeks, the club eventually fined and on the pitch things didn’t get any easier.
Patrick Bamford was banned for unnecessarily diving towards the end of the season, which added to the constant injuries suffered throughout the campaign.
Alongside this, there were constant suggestions that the Yorkshire club suffered the so-called burnout under Bielsa. The Argentine has a history of tiring his sides out after demanding such a high-press game from a thin squad, which he famously prefers.
In the latest reveal on their Twitter account, LUFCDATA highlighted how Leeds didn’t suffer from burnout in an attacking sense and actually produced more as the season went on.
Leeds' conversion rates may have suffered but our chance creation increased in the final third of the campaign. No Bielsa burnout. pic.twitter.com/4DWZJFrgOR
— LUFCDATA (@LUFCDATA) June 11, 2019
The graph shows how the Whites actually improved throughout the campaign and produced many more chances in the last quarter of the campaign. This definitely highlights that Bielsa’s side won the ball back quicker as the season went on and moved it forward faster to create more chances as games went on.
Despite the number of chances created, Leeds definitely didn’t take advantage of this, and that must be the one area they improve on should they want to challenge for promotion once again next season.