The Yorkshire Evening Post’s Joe Urquhart has been speaking on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast about Barry Douglas.
Urquhart talked about other things but spent some time on Douglas and revealed that he actually felt sorry for the one-cap Scottish international after Marcelo Bielsa changed his mind to bring him on against Swansea City last weekend – sending Gaetano Berardi on to the field instead – particularly having been demoted to the bench in the first place despite starring against Blackburn Rovers in the previous week.
Here is what Urquhart had to say on Douglas and Marcelo Bielsa’s decision to replace him:
“It must be quite difficult for Douglas to take as well, given that he played so well at Blackburn and lost his spot, and probably came away from Ewood Park thinking that he’d done enough to retain that.
“As we know with Bielsa – just in that one instance at Swansea – he’s shown rigour in his decision of replacing Douglas with [Stuart] Dallas, he takes the emotion out of it, he just makes decisions based on what he sees in front of him, and that’s, I think, why he doesn’t try and allow himself to get too close to the players.”
It seems as if Urquhart believes that Douglas probably feels hard done by, but Bielsa makes his decisions based on what is best for the team.
Do you feel bad for Douglas?
No
Yes
TIF Thoughts…
Dallas missed the Whites’ 3-1 win over Blackburn as Douglas filled in for him at left-back and earned a 7.07/10 rating (per WhoScored), but considering that Bielsa always seems to find a spot for Dallas, it was Douglas who was sacrificed for the following game against Stoke City.
The Scot has only appeared for 115 minutes since the restart, and he might have thought that after his solid display against Blackburn that he might have earned a chance for more minutes, but since that match, he has only earned 15 more after being left as an unused substitute on Sunday.
We can see why Urquhart feels bad for Douglas, but if Dallas is Bielsa’s preferred choice, then we don’t think you can argue with it considering where he has the Whites in the Championship table.