Leeds United beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 on Tuesday night.
Pundit and former manager Tony Pulis has told Sky Sports (01/10, 9:55pm) that he supports Marcelo Bielsa’s decision to substitute Leeds United ace Tyler Roberts.
Leeds were in action on Tuesday night, hosting West Bromwich Albion at Elland Road in a battle between two sides going for promotion from the Championship.
West Brom went into the game top of the table and unbeaten this season, but Leeds put an end to that with a 1-0 victory thanks to Ezgjan Alioski’s goal.
Leeds leapfrogged West Brom into top spot with that win, but that was short-lived as Swansea reclaimed first place last night.
Leeds will be delighted with their win, but two players endured mixed nights for different reasons, with Liam Cooper and Tyler Roberts substituted under differing circumstances.
Cooper was taken off with an injury after 34 minutes, and whilst Roberts came on for the injured Jamie Shackleton at half time, he was taken off himself 30 minutes later for Luke Ayling.
Substituting a substitute never really looks good, but Bielsa wanted to solidify his side with another defender, with Ayling coming on to help against the West Brom attack.
After the game, Pulis defended Bielsa by suggesting he was doing the right thing for his team, and whilst he feels that that both Leeds and West Brom have the quality to stay in the automatic promotion mix, he added that Leeds have suffered a ‘massive blow’ with Cooper’s injury.
“He’s done it for a reason,” said Pulis. “The reason is the team comes before any individual, so you have to do that at times.”
“We’ve had 10 games, they’ve both got the quality and the depth to stay there. Cooper is a massive blow, he was outstanding last season, and losing him is going to be a massive blow for them,” he added.
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