Michael Brown has reacted to Marcelo Bielsa substituting Pascal Struijk during Leeds United’s win at Aston Villa last night.
The United boss made a surprise decision to take the 21-year-old off after just 21 minutes.
Struijk, starting in midfield in the absence of Kalvin Phillips, picked up an early booking and could have perhaps been sent off almost immediately after for another late challenge.
And the Leeds boss decided to play the percentages and removed the Dutchman, presumably because he felt that a red card was a strong possibility.
And Brown has claimed that Bielsa didn’t even look at Struijk after the substitution.
He told BBC 5 Live Sport: “It’s a strange one. He didn’t even look at him, Marcelo Bielsa. Didn’t even look. It’s a very lonely walk when you’ve come off and that’s happened and you’re uncertain over what you’ve done wrong.”
Struijk is a very big talent but this will undeniably knock his confidence a little bit.
Then again, the Leeds boss is a master of the big picture and he probably wouldn’t have sacrificed him if he didn’t think that the player was strong enough to bounce back from it.
It’s a tad embarrassing for the kid, but Bielsa must be confident in his mental strength and it really wouldn’t be a surprise to see Struijk start the next game, in the same role.
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