Leeds have been poor throughout 2020, winning just one league game since the turn of the year.
However, they have put in one mightily impressive performance that drew praise from pundits and ex-players alike.
Indeed, the Yorkshire club were brilliant against Arsenal in the FA Cup in early January as they had more shots and more possession than the Premier League giants.
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However, we’ve not seen Leeds perform that well ever since, and perhaps it’s time for Marcelo Bielsa to revisit one tactic he used that day.
Versus Arsenal
With the league taking precedent, Marcelo Bielsa chose to rotate a little bit against the Gunners in January.
Robbie Gotts and Illan Meslier made their debuts, while Helder Costa also started on the bench.
The winger dropping out of the side saw Jack Harrison move over to the right while Ezgjan Alioski played just in front of Barry Douglas on the left, and that lineup worked a treat as they held the Gunners until the 55th minute.
Alioski and Douglas are both attacking threats, The former Wolves man assisted 14 goals in the 2017/18 season and his teammate has netted 11 goals over the past season and a half, but they can also both play at left-back.
That meant that they could interchange freely down the left providing both attacking threat and defensive rigidity, while Harrison was effective down the right, completing one key pass and having three shots on target.
We haven’t seen that tactic used since, but perhaps it’s time for it to be used once again.
Bring it back
It’s not nice to single out one player, but Costa has been poor in recent weeks, fans slated him after the Wigan game on Saturday, and he’s not contributed to a goal in over a month.
Using this tactic wouldn’t only get Costa out of the team, but it’d also sure up an area that Phil Hay has described as Leeds’ problem position.
Bielsa needs to change something in order to get the Whites out of this slump, and using the system that was so effective against Arsenal could fix a number of issues at once.
In other news, Marcelo Bielsa’s decision on this U23 star is helping nobody.
