Lewis Baker left Leeds United in January after not playing enough.
Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa made a surprising revelation in January.
Days after loanee Lewis Baker left the club, Bielsa admitted to Leeds Live that not only did he want the 23-year-old to stay, he suggested that he wanted him at Elland Road next season too.
It was later confirmed that Baker, who started two only Championship games with the club, made the decision to leave West Yorkshire due to frustrations over a lack of playing time, but was Bielsa ever using the Chelsea-owned midfielder right in the first place?
Baker has since joined Reading on a half-season loan and he seems to be a lot more effective with the Royals than he ever was at Leeds.
Jose Manuel Gomes has him playing midfield, but in a holding role. His performance in Saturday’s 3-2 win over Wigan Athletic led to widespread praise from the club’s fans.
Leeds fans will argue that Bielsa has a superior player for that holding role in the form of Kalvin Phillips, which is true, but Phillips has played a lot of games in central defence this season and it was Adam Forshaw who had been the midfield anchor on quite a few of those occasions.
Forshaw, who hasn’t played in over a month due to injury, is a good player, but there were question marks over his effectiveness and consistency in defensive midfield and therefore it’s relevant to ask whether Baker would have been a better fit.
We’ll never know, but we do know that the Reading star – who earns £20,000 per week at Chelsea [Spotrac] – is tearing it up at the Madejski Stadium at the moment and the more he does, the less surprising Bielsa’s comments about keeping him are.
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