Garry Monk suggested that stopping Pablo Hernandez was key to denying Leeds United an important win.
In comments reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post, Garry Monk suggested that pushing Pablo Hernandez deeper was a key reason why Leeds were unable to find an equaliser against Birmingham on Saturday.
The Whites have seen their automatic-promotion hopes take a hit after the Blues completed the double over Marcelo Bielsa’s men this season. Che Adams scored the game’s only goal during the first-half.
Leeds were unable to produce the kind of fightback that saw them come from behind twice against Millwall to win 3-2 last weekend. On that day, it was Hernandez who was pulling all of the strings and producing arguably his finest display for the Whites.
Unfortunately for Bielsa however, the Spaniard was not able to make the same impact at St Andrew’s. And Monk – who brought Hernandez to Elland Road during his tenure – suggested that there were plans in place to try and limit the damage that the 33-year-old could do.
“Pablo can unlock a lot of defences. We managed to squeeze him out of his normal positions and make him go deeper,” he said, as reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“He can still hurt you from those positions but it’s more manageable when you have him there. You’d much rather he’s there than in between the lines and picking passes.”
What will disappoint Bielsa is that the rest of the side also struggled to step up. Hernandez has not been the only outstanding performer this term, and his struggles could have opened the door for another player to make the difference.
And with Birmingham showing how to keep the 12-goal, 11-assist talisman quiet for large parts of the game, those other stars within the side now need to step up if Leeds are going to get themselves back in the top two in the Championship.
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