The decision to only put Patrick Bamford on with five minutes remaining of Leeds United’s loss to Arsenal was strange.
That is the view of BBC Sport pundit Pat Nevin, who has criticised Javi Gracia for the changes he made during the 4-1 defeat at the Emirates on Saturday.
Of course, we expected little going into the clash with Mikel Arteta’s side. But there was hope that we could frustrate the Premier League leaders and potentially sneak out of North London with something.
Ultimately, that was not the case. And now, Tuesday’s clash with Nottingham Forest is even more significant.
Gracia criticised over Bamford substitution
Leeds seemed to do well at frustrating Arsenal before the opening goal. The Gunners cruised the second-half. But defensive errors were costly.
There is likely to be plenty of talk surrounding Gracia’s team selection, as well as the substitutions he made at the Emirates.
Neither Patrick Bamford or Rodrigo started. The latter came on just before the midway point in the second-half. And some may have expected Bamford to be brought on when Rasmus Kristensen handed Leeds a lifeline with 14 minutes remaining.
However, Gracia waited another nine minutes before bringing the £10 million man on. By that time, Arsenal had scored a fourth and put the game to bed again.
And that prompted Nevin to criticise the Leeds boss for bringing Bamford on when he did.
He told BBC Sport when discussing the fourth Arsenal goal: “Kristensen’s watched him all day and the one time he doesn’t, he scores!
“That is well and truly game over and just as Leeds started to get a bit excited and their fans were lifted.
“There’s been some strange substitutions in this game from Leeds and only just bringing Bamford on now, is one of them.”
It is really hard to know about how to feel about Saturday’s result. Obviously, a defeat to Arsenal is not going to define the season. And should we beat Forest on Tuesday, the situation suddenly looks a lot better again.
However, the pressure has definitely ramped up again after everything that happened today.
Certainly, there is no chance that both Rodrigo and Bamford will start on the bench at Elland Road.
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
