Shocker: Bielsa has just made massive blunder with essential £50k/wk Leeds ace – MOT View
No one is above making the odd mistake and no one is above criticism – even Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa.
And Bielsa dropped a major clanger on Saturday.
Kalvin Phillips picked up his fifth booking of the season in the 3-0 defeat against Tottenham.
It means that he’ll miss the next Premier League game against Brighton following the FA Cup clash this weekend.
Phillips was booked in the 89th minute of the game, long after the game was already done.
To be honest, it was done when Bielsa made his third and final substitution of the game when he brought Pablo Hernandez on for Rodrigo after 65 minutes.
Leeds were 3-0 down and still chasing the game – admirably, but without much of a real chance of getting anything from it.
Bielsa took both Phillips and Mateusz Klich off at half-time in the game against Man United with Leeds 4-0 down, and that must have been with an eye to protecting the players – both on four yellow cards.
£50k-a-week Phillips is the man, though, and he needed to get through this game, the Brighton one and the Southampton game to avoid the one-game ban.
The five yellows also open the door for a potential worse punishment later in the season.
If Phillips picks up another five yellows before the 32nd fixture of the season, he’ll be banned for another two games.
The irony is that Leeds were one of the sides that voted against the use of five subs. Had they been able to make two more substitutes, we think Bielsa would have taken Phillips and Klich off and we wouldn’t be facing this huge problem now.
If Liam Cooper and Diego Llorente are back for Brighton then Pascal Struijk can step up to the holding midfield position.
But, let’s be clear, Leeds are a very different side with Struijk playing in the 1 of Bielsa’s 4-1-4-1.
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