BIELSA EYES GELD RUSH Marcelo set to give Joe a go
MARCELO BIELSA has hinted he could hand young striker Joe Gelhardt more chances in a bid to turn Leeds’ season around.
Gelhardt, 19, who was signed from Wigan Athletic’s academy in the summer of 2020, has impressed with second-half cameos in the Whites’ last two games.
That has led to some fans calling for the striker to be given a starting role in an attack that is floundering in the absence of the injured Patrick Bamford.
And Bielsa sounded like a manager laying the foundations for such a move as he took the pressure off Gelhardt in previewing today’s clash with Norwich.
He said: “When a young player comes into the first team, they have that added pathway, they don’t assume the performance of the team.
“Nobody is going to make them responsible when it comes to negative results and the positive contributions are always especially appreciated.
“The obligation when a young player comes on is not to change the result or to resolve the problems of the team – that is the responsibility of the coach and the older players.
“But they have to show they have the resources to participate in the demands of the competition.”
Leeds’ clash with rock-bottom Norwich has taken on greater significance given their own struggles so far this season, but
Bielsa isn’t paying too much attention to the early Premier League standings.
He added: “You analyse the position in the table and the team’s performances – which is obviously what I do after every game – and try and take things from that into the rest of the competition.
“But it’s something that does not give you any security or reassurances.
“With the teams in the bottom half of the table after a third of the season, there is analysis which shows that a lot of them stay there – but some can and do abandon that position.
“So you can’t make any real evaluation from that yet. What is concrete is that we are where we are, we play how we play and we need to improve the reality of that.”