Raphinha's half-time substitution at Everton was tactical, says Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa - Yorkshire Post 12/2/22

LEEDS UNITED head coach Marcelo Bielsa confirmed that Raphinha's interval substitution was for tactical reasons after the Brazilian went off at the break in the Whites' poor 3-0 Premier League defeat at Everton.

By Leon Wobschall

A bad day at the office saw United trail 2-0 at half-time after Seamus Coleman and Michael Keane struck for a pumped-up Everton side who produced a dominant performance in Frank Lampard's first home match in charge.

The Blues eased their relegation fears with a deserved victory, crowned when Richarlison's late drive took a deflection off team-mate Anthony Gordon before nestling in the net 12 minutes from time.

Leeds hit the woodwork twice in the first half through Rodrigo, but it was a day when they had no efforts on target.

The day was compounded by an early injury to Stuart Dallas, with Leo Fuhr Hjelde replacing him.

Adam Forshaw and Tyler Roberts entered the fray, for Mateusz Klich and Raphinha respectively at the break. The latter, so impressive in his side's previous three fixtures against Everton, had an inauspicious afternoon, but was far from alone.

Leeds are six points above the relegation zone. Everton are now just a point behind them, with a game in hand.

On bringing off Raphinha, Bielsa said: "I preferred for (Dan) James to take on the right-wing role and Tyler (Roberts) to be the centre-forward. He is not injured.

"It was a fair result, it is difficult to defend. In the second half when we defended a bit better, we couldn't attack. We didn't defend well in the first half, but we created something.

In the second half, we defended a little bit better but couldn't create danger.

The position of Klich was an error on my part. He was the midfielder positioned in front of the centre-backs and he had to defend too much. He couldn't do what he does best which is make runs in attack.

"Sincerely, I assigned a task to him that due to his characteristics was going to be difficult to take. It was difficult for us to recover.

"They are different games and in the one today, it was very difficult for us to defend. If you watch the game, you will see it was difficult for us to anticipate their forwards."