Roberts left the bench late at St Mary’s to silence the crowd of 8,000 as he passed Alex McCarthy with the best of endings. His goal was added to Patrick Bamford’s first goal and ended the game in injury time.
Bielsa’s celebration on the touchline showed how much it meant to him to see the 22-year-old hit the net.
“I was happy that he scored because he had played a lot of games and hadn’t managed to do it,” said the coach after his team’s third consecutive victory in the Premier League.
Leeds rallied from a poor first half to hit the front halfway through the second, Bamford coming in alone on McCarthy thanks to a sublime ball from Rodrigo on defense.
Bielsa appreciated everything Bamford did, not just his 16th goal of the season, and believes the forward should be satisfied with his top flight campaign.
“Patrick put in a very generous performance, with a lot of effort,” Bielsa said. “He has had a season in which he has shone. I am sure that he will be very positive about the campaign he has had, whatever it is. Everything he has achieved this season is due to the effort and dedication he has put into showing his skills. “
Turning the game around as they did in the second half was solely due to the characteristics of the players who finally shone, insisted Bielsa, who made a double exchange at halftime, replacing Diego Llorente and Kalvin Phillips with Gaetano Berardi and Pascal Struijk. .
“It wasn’t my influence, it was the profile of the individuals in the second half that changed the game,” he said. “The team in the second half was much more like the team it is. This is how we unleashed the game in the second half, Southampton could have done the same in the first half. “
The break change gave Berardi, who is expected to leave the club this summer at the end of his contract, a Premier League debut that Bielsa deemed well deserved.
“Berardi is in excellent form and his tackle was very useful,” said the head coach.
“He made no mistakes and it helped a lot.”
Before the match, Bielsa made the decision to start Kiko Casilla in goal in place of Illan Meslier for the second time in the Premier League this season. He also confirmed that the Spaniard will remain in place for the final game of the season at home to West Brom on Sunday, when Leeds fans will return to Elland Road for the first time since March 2020.
“They are two very high-level professionals,” he said about his goalkeepers.
“Of course the year was much more difficult for Kiko. But he was a very, very good teammate.
“The fact that Kiko played today and will play on Sunday is a decision that I decided to finalize.”
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-18 20:33:40
