Leeds United manager Sam Allardyce has handed Georginio Rutter a further blow by claiming he had no striker on the bench to replace the injured Rodrigo Moreno at West Ham.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Allardyce claimed he was unable to take Rodrigo off despite his evident struggles due to his lack of options on the bench.
It was another damaging afternoon for Leeds in the capital as they dropped yet more points from a winning position to come away with nothing.
Rodrigo had given Leeds the lead inside the opening 20 minutes but as has been a familiar problem all season, let West Ham back into the game through Declan Rice’s equaliser.
Leeds then barely laid a glove on the Hammers at all after the break as Jarrod Bowen and Manuel Lanzini both got on the score sheet, leaving Allardyce’s side’s survival hopes hanging by a thread.
Allardyce hands Rutter further blow with striker jibe
Rodrigo is arguably one of the few who can come out of this season knowing he gave everything but Leeds were almost playing with 10 in the second half.
The Spaniard was practically playing on one leg from minute 46 onwards and leaving him on will have only damaged the injury further ahead of next weekend’s clash with Tottenham.
Leeds spent a club record fee to bring Rutter in from Hoffenheim in January and Allardyce’s comments on his lack of attacking options is yet another blow in a difficult start to life in West Yorkshire.
“Yeah, look, we had to, because we were always in the game. When we were winning the game and then it was half time, we were 1-1 and we were in the game. They got to 2-1 was still in the game.
“So we couldn’t take him off because looking at the substitutions who could replace him. We didn’t really have a centre forward to replace him.”
Allardyce’s refusal to use Rutter followed by his post-match comments are doing more harm than good for everyone involved in the situation.
Rodrigo was clearly struggling and there is no way in any world that bringing on Brenden Aaronson and Sam Greenwood was a more effective plan than using Rutter.
If both Rodrigo and Patrick Bamford are out next week and Rutter is still not handed an opportunity, you might as well hammer the final nail in the coffin now.