Athletic journalist Phil Hay has admitted he was concerned after Leeds lost 1-0 to Charlton on Saturday.
It was Leeds’ second defeat of the season and it means they’ve only won two of the last five, a run that’s seen them drop to fourth in the table.
Tweeting after the game, Hay said he was concerned about one thing during the defeat. He said, “Bielsa tried all of the solutions we’ve been talking about – different formation, Costa from the start, Bamford and Nketiah together. None of it made a difference.”
one thing that concerned me yesterday was that Bielsa tried all of the solutions we’ve been talking about – different formation, Costa from the start, Bamford and Nketiah together. None of it made a difference.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) September 29, 2019
One thing Bielsa hasn’t tried
The game against Charlton was the story of Leeds under Bielsa this season.
They absolutely dominated the game, with 72% possession and 19 shots to Charlton’s three. However, they only managed to get four of those shots on target. Charlton got all three on target and scored from one of them. [SofaScore]
SofaScore’s attack momentum graph shows the story of the game clearly – Leeds are in blue on the bottom.
It’s a real problem for Leeds.
In the 1-0 defeat to Swansea Leeds had 61% of possession and 21 shots to Swansea’s seven – they only got three shots on target to Swansea’s two.
Hay claims that Bielsa has tried everything that’s been discussed to change things up, but that’s not strictly true.
Eddie Nketiah still hasn’t started for Leeds in the Championship and it’s surely time to unleash him from the off in the game against West Brom on Tuesday night.
The Arsenal loanee didn’t manage to score on Saturday but he’s still averaged over 50% of his shots on target in the Championship and has scored an average of 1.1 goals per 90 minutes. [WyScout]
That’s much better than Patrick Bamford, who has scored 0.48 goals per 90 minutes with a shot accuracy of 30%.
It’s surely time for Nektiah to start for Leeds in the league.