Samuel Saiz and Pablo Hernandez both started Leeds United’s Championship clash with Reading at Elland Road on Saturday.
Leeds suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to Reading in their first game following the international break to leave them going into their clash with Bristol City next weekend off the back of three consecutive defeats.
One of the problems in recent weeks appears to have been the lack of creativity coming from the three players playing off the striker, with Saiz often in the middle and a teammate either side of him.
It was Hernandez on one side in the defeat to the Royals, leading many to question whether the similarities between the pair’s styles of play means that they cannot both be on the pitch at the same time. But Whelan has suggested that the pair playing in the same team was not the main reason for Leeds’ defeat.
“Everybody’s level of intensity and quality has got to be maximum. We didn’t have that today. Usually you see lovely one touch, two touch passing and we open up defences with our movement and creativity in that final third, bodies going beyond the striker from the midfield. We didn’t get any of that today.”
As Whelan suggests, there have been occasions where having Hernandez and Saiz in the same team has reaped dividends for the Whites.
And with none of the other wingers giving Thomas Christiansen a strong reason to drop Hernandez – it could certainly be argued that Saiz’s place should be the safer out of the pair – perhaps it just has to be reluctantly accepted that there are going to be fixtures when their luxury players do not manage to make an impact.
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