Barry Douglas missed chance to regain Leeds left-back spot

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Barry Douglas has missed Leeds United’s last two Championship games due to injury, but did return in the Carabao Cup.

With Marcelo Bielsa yet to drop a single player due to form this season, Barry Douglas would have already known that he faced an extremely difficult task getting back into the Leeds side after picking up an injury that ruled him out of the Whites’ last two Championship fixtures.

Douglas was perhaps the one outfield player who did not have the best afternoon in Leeds’ opening day win over Bristol City. But the Scot seemed to improve significantly over the next few games, and it felt like a real blow for Bielsa’s side to lose the £3 million man to injury (fee reported by Sky Sports).

And it initially appeared that he would stand an excellent chance of regaining that left-back spot quickly once he returned to full fitness as Gjanni Alioski looked somewhat rusty when Leeds beat Brentford 1-0 earlier this month.

However, Alioski was superb at Stoke at the weekend and scored the second goal in the 3-0 win. That performance reminded the fans of the form the Macedonian showed last season when he enjoyed a lengthy run in a deeper role, and would have added to the pressure on Douglas’ shoulders when he made his return for the Carabao Cup tie with the same opposition on Tuesday.

The Championship leaders were knocked out of the competition on penalties after producing an outstanding comeback having gone into half-time 2-0 down at Elland Road.

But unfortunately for Douglas, it is arguably difficult to imagine Bielsa feeling that he saw enough from the former Wolves man to tempt him to consider leaving Alioski out of the starting lineup for Saturday’s game against Swansea City.

Douglas did improve as the game went on and did score his penalty, but it was a somewhat underwhelming display from the full-back. And unfortunately, it would be a surprise if Bielsa decided to make a change.

With Douglas starting the season in the side, he arguably had more chance of forcing his way into Bielsa’s starting lineup than any other player on the pitch on Tuesday. But it seems that he may now have to wait for another chance to wrestle that spot back from Alioski.