Some 232 years ago, Benjamin Franklin bestowed upon us a saying that rings true even to this day: ‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes’.
Well, that and Mateuz Klich starting a game in the heart of Leeds United’s midfield, of course.
It is amazing to think that, before the transformative appointment of Marcelo Bielsa in 2018, Klich was viewed largely as something of a persona non-grata in West Yorkshire, out-of-sight, out-of-mind and sandwiched between Pawel Cibicki and Jay-Roy Grot in the pantheon of forgettable Victor Orta signings.
In fact, that 3-1 trouncing of Stoke City on Bielsa’s Championship debut was only Klich’s second start in Leeds colours. But a player frozen out by Thomas Christiansen would certainly make up for lost time.
Over the next two seasons, Klich started 91 of a potential 92 league fixtures – dropped to the bench only once, sitting out a 2020 victory over Derby County after enjoying those promotion celebrations a little too vociferously.
The tradition has largely endured, too.
Klich has started in seven of Leeds’ nine Premier League games this term, left on the bench against Liverpool onlu after a bout of COVID which ruled him out of August’s 1-1 draw with Burnley.
What next for Matuesz Klich at Leeds United?
The problem is, however, that while Bielsa continues to hand Klich the keys to Leeds’ midfield, his standing among the Elland Road faithful is not quite as strong as it once was.
The intensity and skill that characterised his very best performances during that 2019-peak has been in short supply of late, as have the goals and assists that once marked him out as a potential match-winner.
Klich has only scored once this term, while setting up just one more. And it was no coincidence that Leeds’ fluency and domination ebbed away during the midweek Carabao Cup defeat at Arsenal once the Poland international had been introduced at the interval.
Perhaps fatigue has caught up to him. If anyone deserves a break, it is Bielsa’s man for all seasons and man for all games.
Maybe he, like many of his teammates, is struggling with the effects of ‘Second Season Syndrome’. It could be a more simple explanation too; having celebrated his 31st birthday in June, the demands of Bielsa’s muscle-twinging, high-octane ‘murderball’ sessions may be taking their toll.
Whatever the reason, things just aren’t clicking for Klich right now.
And reports linking Leeds with a January move for Reading’s £7 million talisman John Swift, via The Star, appear to go hand-in-hand with Klich’s demise from playmaking prince to perennial passenger.
Swift, five years Klich’s junior and once described as a ‘great player’ by Bielsa himself, has been in the form of his life this term, eight goals and six assists – including a marvellous free-kick against Peterborough and a scything solo effort against Blackburn – a reflection of that fact.
That he plays in the same left-sided central midfield role that Klich has made his made his own at Elland Road too, drifting in onto his favoured right boot, does not feel like a coincidence either.
Perhaps, soon enough, death and taxes will be the only certainties left.
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