Pablo Hernandez was missing for Leeds United against Middlesbrough and the Elland Road outfit stuttered to a dull Championship draw.
The phrase ‘no Pablo, no party’ certainly rang true as Leeds United and Middlesbrough slugged it out in a tense top-of-the-table clash on Friday night.
It was a game of tight defences and set pieces at Elland Road and, to be quite frank, there was little quality on show.
Leeds produced arguably their most incoherent performance of the Marcelo Bielsa reign, giving away possession cheaply and failing to test Boro’s rearguard throughout 90 frustrating minutes.
It is surely no coincidence that this display coincided with the absence of Leeds’ 33-year-old play-maker, who missed the game through injury.
Hernandez has had an outstanding start to the new season, scoring three times and setting up two more in five league games. Unsurprisingly, the former Spain international has been key to Bielsa’s free-flowing attacking style.
Even if the likes of Kemar Roofe, Mateusz Klich and Samu Saiz have shone in 2018/19, Hernandez is still the man who makes Leeds tick. And the lack of composure and creativity without him in the starting XI was telling.
It would be unfair to go overboard on a slightly below-par performance against Tony Pulis’s pacesetters.
But, with 40 games to go in the Championship, the likes of Saiz, Gianni Alioski and Jack Harrison must learn to step up when needed, because Leeds cannot rely on the ageing Hernandez to be at his best every week.
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