MOT View: Fresh injury rumours sweeping Twitter may see Bielsa unleashing secret weapon v Fulham
Leeds United missed Pablo Hernandez on Sunday when they slumped to a disappointing 2-0 defeat against Cardiff.
Marcelo Bielsa turned to Tyler Roberts to fill the hole in the no.10 spot but the 21-year-old couldn’t impact the game the way Hernandez can.
There’s still been no word about whether Hernandez will be back for the game against Fulham on Saturday.
Hernandez is 35 and this becomes a real risk/reward conundrum for Bielsa. The last thing he’ll want is to lose such a key player for the remainder of the season.
Unless he’s 100% he probably starts on the bench.
Leeds injury concerns could be about to get worse, though.
There are plenty of Leeds fans talking about Roberts and how he’s going to miss the game on Saturday.
We stress that these are unconfirmed rumours at the moment but when a lot of Leeds fans start talking about something, it tends to have some substance.
One of our MOT Super Fans tweeted about Roberts and if he is out of the game it would be a major blow – especially if Hernandez is out too.
Marcelo Bielsa has options. He could stick Stuart Dallas into midfield and bring in Gjanni Alioski on the left.
However, Dallas hasn’t been anywhere near as effective in midfield and he’s been brilliant at left-back.
We’d prefer to see Bielsa do something bold.
Ian Poveda made his debut on Sunday and was really impressive. Bright, sharp and direct, he took the game to Cardiff and was one of the only bright sparks in a pretty miserable game.
Bielsa could unleash his secret weapon from the off on Saturday, with Fulham likely knowing next to nothing about the former Man City youngster.
It would mean moving Helder Costa into the space vacated by Hernandez and Roberts and using Poveda out on the right.
It’s not ideal and we’re desperately hoping that both Roberts and Hernandez are fit.
However, if the worst is confirmed, we’d like to see Bielsa take it to Fulham and unleash Poveda from the start.
In other Leeds United news, ‘That’s what I’m saying’ – McCoist makes Leeds prediction ahead of ‘incredible’ clash v Fulham