Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa has told Leeds Live that he substituted Kalvin Phillips and Mateusz Klich to try and win the ball back quicker against Manchester United.
The Whites travelled to Old Trafford on Sunday, but found themselves 4-0 down as Scott McTominay bagged a brace before Bruno Fernandes and Victor Lindelof scored.
Liam Cooper pulled one back, but Daniel James and a Fernandes penalty made it 6-1 for United. Stuart Dallas did score a long-range beauty, but it was little more than a consolation.
Leeds played brilliant football going forward once again, but were wide open at the back and left far too much space for United on the counter-attack.
Bielsa did make a bold decision at half time, substituting key midfielders Kalvin Phillips and Mateusz Klich in favour of youngsters Pascal Struijk and Jamie Shackleton.
That was quite the decision; Phillips is Leeds’ controlling midfielder, whilst Klich has offered so much in more of a box-to-box role that taking both of them off seemed a risk – even at 4-1 down.
After the game, Bielsa explained that he wanted to have a more defensively-minded midfield in place, in order to try and win the ball back quicker and protect the back four.
Bielsa felt it worked well, but it does ultimately seem likely that Phillips and Klich will be back in action against Burnley next weekend.
“We were losing the game by a big margin and I thought that with a more defensive midfield we would have the opportunity to get back closer to them in the score,” said Bielsa. “It improved the recovery of the ball in midfield as we were able to continue to attack well,” he added.
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