Joe Gelhardt and Tyler Roberts question and an answer fans might have to accept - YEP 15/2/22

The questions Leeds United fans want to put to Marcelo Bielsa are reasonable but there’s no guarantee they’ll like the answers.

By Graham Smyth

When times are hard and results aren’t consistently good, like right now for the Whites in the midst of a six-game run that has included one draw, two wins and three defeats, the questions come thick and fast for any head coach.

Supporters want to question Bielsa on tactics because it’s just as natural as judging individual performances or debating refereeing decisions. But nothing comes under scrutiny quite like team selection.

In the promotion season, thanks to the largely consistent manner in which Leeds went about their business, there were few selection decisions that needed working out.

The one that caused most consternation was Bielsa’s continued faith in Patrick Bamford, despite goal droughts and missed chances, despite the presence of Eddie Nketiah on the bench. Nketiah was taking chances from limited amounts of game time and for all the world looked like the finisher Leeds were lacking during Bamford’s struggles in front of goal. On and on the questions came for Bielsa, phrased in a variety of ways but, as he well knew, all asking the same thing - why not Nketiah? He explained himself, at length, highlighting that Nketiah ran more than Bamford but that running was to try and score goals whereas Leeds’ No 9 was expected to run for the team. Bamford might not have been finishing his chances on a regular enough basis but he was fulfilling the role as Bielsa required. So he played and Nketiah waited, until his and Arsenal’s patience ran out. That was when, with half a season to go and a Championship winner’s medal in the offing, Nketiah ran out on Leeds and Bielsa.

Time proved Bielsa correct as Bamford not only played an important role in the club’s ascension to the Premier League with six goals, two assists and a host of big performances, but went on to score 17 goals in the top flight last season. With eight assists thrown in for good measure, there were no questions for Bielsa over the No 9 shirt for a full season. Last season was a simpler time than the one we’re living in now.

Bamford has played just 459 of Leeds’ 2,070 Premier League minutes, a series of injuries reducing him to a frustrated onlooker as Bielsa picks from Daniel James, Rodrigo, Tyler Roberts and Joe Gelhardt.

After a game against Newcastle United in which Leeds missed a natural centre-forward and ahead of the visit to Aston Villa, the question fans wanted their head coach to answer was ‘why are you persisting with James up front?’.

End product has not come easily to the winger this season, even when playing as a striker, but then he scored twice at Villa Park and, at least temporarily, silenced the questions.

Few could argue with the selection of James as a striker in the team that faced Everton but, after a mess of a first-half performance, Bielsa went with a different option for the second 45 and you could hear the question coming from supporters before it was even asked. Why Roberts and not Gelhardt?

It’s a fair question when you look at their offensive output. Gelhardt has a goal and three assists in the Premier League, while Roberts has one goal and one assist.

Put in context of their minutes on the pitch, it becomes easier to understand the bafflement of those who interact with the YEP’s Leeds United writers and the rest of the local press pack. Gelhardt has played 311 minutes, Roberts 916.

Putting the ball in the net or creating chances that team-mates score from has been a struggle for Roberts. He has nine goals in 106 Leeds appearances, but seven of those came in the Championship. Gelhardt is younger, newer to the club and therefore has more of the unknown quantity about him but, what we have seen, suggests there is a very good chance of a very big future. Roberts is still only 23 and there is clearly a good player in there - we’ve seen flashes of one and Bielsa is picking him for a reason - yet those asking the questions of those who ask the head coach the questions can’t see it. Even if there has been an element of scapegoating in a season when so many have suffered from inconsistency, Roberts has undoubtedly lacked impact in the Premier League and is yet to prove himself at this level.

What appears to have added to the chagrin felt by some in the Whites fanbase is that since CEO Angus Kinnear's programme notes of January 22, the day of the Newcastle defeat, when he laid bare the club's belief that investing in and developing talented young players instead of making expensive signings, Bamford's injury situation does not appear to have improved and with no expensive signings made, the young talent they're developing, Gelhardt, has had just 10 minutes of Premier League football. So when, with Leeds 2-0 down and playing so poorly at Everton, it was to Roberts that Bielsa turned and not Gelhardt, the frustration intensified.

What should have been obvious at Goodison Park, however, was that Roberts was not the problem and, as an attacker, couldn’t really provide the solution either. Leeds lacked control in the midfield, time and composure on the ball and created next to nothing for their forwards. Rodrigo’s two chances, two beautiful efforts from long range that each hit the crossbar, were struck because there was nothing else on. Gelhardt’s profile is different to Roberts and, if you wanted a chance or half-chance to drop to one of the two men, you might well pick the teenager, but there was little chance of either seeing the goal at their mercy on Saturday. Not for the first time, Roberts came into a side that was flat and faltering and he couldn’t change that. Asking Gelhardt to turn the performance around would have been a huge ask, for one so young and inexperienced.

A question for those insisting Bielsa should have been pressed more pointedly on that substitution, or the opportunities Roberts is being given ahead of Gelhardt is this - do you want an answer, or do you simply want the head coach to know that you disagree with him? Another might be, will you accept whatever he says?

Anyone suggesting that what the situation calls for is greater accountability for Bielsa forgets the Bamford-versus-Nketiah saga. There was evidently more to it then than met the eye on matchdays and that’s likely to be the case right now, too. Bielsa is choosing Roberts based on everything he sees on a daily basis and the exact requirements of game scenarios. That’s not to say he’s necessarily correct, or infallible - he got the midfield wrong on Saturday and errs like any human - but, if there’s one thing Bielsa is, it’s well informed. His decisions are based on something.

The idea that being asked to justify Roberts’ inclusion over Gelhardt will somehow sway the Argentine towards a different path and usher in the era of ‘Joffy’ holds very little weight. Bielsa has faced the fiercest of criticism and questioning, mostly at a national level, for his style of play, ethos and desire to attack at all times and not once has he deviated from what he knows. We can and will, as the journalists tasked with representing Leeds fans in press conferences, ask the questions fans want to hear.

The answer might change your mind and it might make enough sense and end the debate but, if not, the question won’t change anything. On some things, you might just have to agree to disagree with Bielsa and, on this, you might have to content yourself with the knowledge that Gelhardt’s time will come.