Promised land in sight with Pablo
IF Marcelo Bielsa turns out to be the prophet leeds United are waiting for, Pablo Hernandez is the first disciple. Bristol city will not be the first to fall at his feet.
Somehow, the 34-year-old is getting better. This was a brilliant display from the playmaker, his goal and assist barely speaking for the way he ran the game.
Bielsa has overseen an exodus of key men from leeds this summer. Pontus Jansson — gone. Kemar Roofe — on his way to anderlecht.
Yet with the evergreen Hernandez still around, the man sitting on the now- sponsored blue bucket looks ready to lead another attempted charge towards the promised land.
Before thoughts turn to what comes next, though, someone needs to send oxygen masks to the poor Bristol city players.
Suffocated for 90 minutes, a two-goal defeat flattered them. in the end it was goals from Hernandez, Patrick Bamford and Jack Harrison that gave the pre-season promotion favourites the win, but it could, and should, have been more.
Bielsa enthused about the Spaniard’s display. Well, as much as Bielsa enthuses about anyone: ‘He today created a balance in individual play.
‘He’s a player that plays more in combination and at the same time today broke the balance of the opponent.
‘When he has this type of performance it is of great value to the team.’
leeds handed a debut to summer signing Ben White, Jansson’s replacement, and Bristol boss lee Johnson threw in his £8million record signing Tomas Kalas, plus Kasey Palmer and Dan Bentley.
The settled nature of the leeds side led to them dominating the first half.
Bamford missed two chances around a quarter of an hour into the game, yet the goal was coming.
inevitably, it was Hernandez who scored it. Having knitted the match together, he decided to take charge of it. Harrison fed adam Forshaw, who dallied on the edge of the box, and Hernandez demanded the ball.
all it took was a touch, turn and swoop and Bentley was picking the ball out of the Bristol net. Hernandez’s curler had flown past him before he knew it was airborne.
‘it was too easy for him to turn and get the shot away,’ Johnson complained afterwards.
leeds did not take the half-time break as a reason to pause and they could have doubled their lead when a cross evaded everyone in the six-yard box. not that they had to wait long. With 56 minutes on the clock, Hernandez collected a cross that went astray. He flicked the ball past his marker and then sent a perfectly weighted ball to the near post, where Bamford headed in.
Still going in the 75th minute, leeds counter-attacked through Stuart Dallas. He sent the ball to Mateusz Klich. Klich’s shot was deflected but dropped kindly for Harrison, who tapped into an empty net.
‘Sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say they were
better than us,’ Johnson said. ‘They were better than us in their brain, their movement, the way they tidied up.
‘I thought we were honest, but there was a gulf in quality on the day. That’s just me being honest.’
Andreas Weimann got a consolation goal late on for Bristol. Given the way leeds’ form collapsed at the end of last season, some jitters were inevitable.
Yet there was a reason the fans in the away end were singing about going up. This was the sort of dominant performance that makes the rest of the division sit up, take notice, and worry about the date leeds come to town.
Bielsa was inevitably not getting carried away:
‘I know this is a long season and all the things that happen in the beginning of the season is not the definition of the finish,’ he said. ‘We suffered a lot this type of situation last season.’
leeds know more than most how to suffer. They now have hope that this, their 16th season in the wilderness, will be their last.