Leeds United hit their first speed bump of the season against Stoke at Elland Road on Tuesday night.
After beating Nathan Jones’ side 3-0 at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday, Leeds were 2-0 down at Elland Road by half-time after goals from Danny Batth and Sam Vokes.
It was a heavily changed line-up from Leeds but Kiko Casilla started again. He’s played every game so far this season but some fans are still not sure about him.
He could have done better for the first goal from Batth – he got a hand to the header but couldn’t keep it out of the net.
Some fans might not have been too bothered about going out of the EFL cup but Marcelo Bielsa seemingly didn’t share their view, making a triple substitution at half-time.
Alfie McCalmont, Jamie Shackleton and Jack Clarke were the three players hauled off and it was the latter who raised eyebrows.
Clarke has been dropped from recent Championship squads because of Leeds having too many loan players and the EFL Cup is the only place he’s getting a run-out at the moment.
Taking him off was an obvious sign that Bielsa wasn’t pleased with what he saw and plenty of Leeds fans agreed too.
It was the first time Leeds have been behind in any game this season but they proved they had fight. Leeds hit back with Eddie Nketiah in the 67th minute after a terrible mistake from Jack Butland and he should have bagged a second with around 10 minutes left.
Instead, it was left to Helder Costa who got the equaliser in the 81st minute taking the game to a penalty shootout that Leeds ended up losing.
It means they can concentrate on the league but it does mean that Clarke might find game-time that much harder to come by after his display tonight.
Here are the best reactions to Clarke’s performance:
https://twitter.com/Mickledonions/status/1166440191223107587
https://twitter.com/Jase0909/status/1166438087276335112
https://twitter.com/IsThatConfirmed/status/1166438816569352199
This has been Clarke’s story since he suffered from a virus and was sidelined last season. Before his illness, he was wowing fans down the wing and he did enough to secure a permanent move to Tottenham over the summer.
One fan said, “Spurs must be scratching their heads a bit with Clarke” and another said that loaning him back isn’t quite working out.
https://twitter.com/RLN1990/status/1166438715155189760
https://twitter.com/AndrewFirth21/status/1166438131354222592
Send Clarke back to Spurs
— Andrew Gillespie (@AJ__Gillespie) August 27, 2019
let’s send Clarke back honestly he’s never gonna disposes Pablo Harrison and Costa #lufc
— Armo??? (@Jordan_Armo) August 27, 2019
https://twitter.com/FakeLeedsFan/status/1166437771768193030
https://twitter.com/stanners_1982/status/1166433267844812802
Plenty of fans were calling for Clarke to go back to Tottenham, with one saying he’d never get in the team ahead of Pablo Hernandez, Jack Harrison and Helder Costa. It’s looking like selling him over the summer could turn out to be a really good bit of business, with one fan saying “Leeds have mugged Spurs on the Clarke deal”.
Another fan said she hoped Tottenham paid upfront “otherwise we might be in trouble”. Thankfully for Leeds, the deal is done and dusted.
Clarke not performing at all
— Kevin Davis (@chorleywhite) August 27, 2019
What's up with Clarke
— Peterbraime (@Peterbraimehot1) August 27, 2019
https://twitter.com/crowtsa/status/1166438243170168833
Really not working out for Clarke this loan return ? #LUFC
— MJ (@elland_toad) August 27, 2019
I’m not at the game but it sounds like Jack Clarke has gone backwards in his development, Costa sounds like he’s trying too hard to create and haven’t even heard Bogusz name been mentioned once. Perhaps showing how fragile this squad is! #lufc
— Tom (@murgs78) August 27, 2019
Bad night for Jack Clarke. Subbed at half time and now about to be kicked off Bake Off in the first week. #lufc #gbbo
— Andrew Haigh (@AndrewHaigh) August 27, 2019
It will be interesting to see what Bielsa says about Clarke after the game but we can’t see him making the Championship squad for the game against Swansea at the weekend.