Jamie Vardy too much for Leeds United, Pablo Hernandez reaction should be addressed, time for Pascal Struijk - Dominic Matteo

When I look at Leicester, I know exactly how they’re going to play.

With Jamie Vardy up front, you know the style they’re going to play and the gameplan they’ll try and execute. We should have known that. We know he has pace, we know his movement and the problems he can cause. But we never really got to terms with that. In the first five or 10 minutes he was doing what he wanted.

I used to hate that as a central defender, if they got control of you and not the other way around. It always looked like Vardy was in control and no one really led in that situation. I’ve not seen that in Leeds for a while. I hate the word bullied, but that’s what Leicester and Vardy did at times. Vardy was a bit too much, Harvey Barnes was all over the place and the pair of them were running the show early on. Liam Cooper struggled a little bit – maybe he needs a bit more game time after the injury – but he wasn’t quite at it. It’s all about the positions you take up as a centre-back, so you don’t get caught like we got caught – against pace, you drop off.

I know that, with the way Bielsa plays, we’re always on the front foot and trying to look forward but, sometimes, you have to be cute and, if it’s not on to push up, you’ve got to drop off. That’s where we got exploited by a good team.

Defensively we’ve shipped a few goals and that’s the way of the world at the moment but we have to adjust and quickly. The way we play is a bit gung-ho at times and, against teams that can pick you off like Leicester can, we have to be careful. We can’t be gung-ho all the time. If you play like that every week it’s going to be tough to keep clean sheets. I know they did at Villa but giving people so many chances, more often than not means you will inevitably suffer defeats. We don’t want to be shipping so many goals so we have to be tighter. We do get up to the ball quickly but we got the art of defending wrong against Leicester. In games like that, maybe we just need a slight adaptation to get results. That’s what it’s about in the Premier League, selecting the right players to get you a result.

Kalvin Phillips was a big miss in that holding position and I felt playing Mateusz Klich there was a mistake. Klich gets on the ball and makes things happen and, for me, he has to be further forward. Klich didn’t do much wrong but I like to see him playing higher up the pitch and causing the opposition problems, getting his goalscoring opportunities.

All it takes is a few injuries and, quality wise, we suddenly look a little short in certain areas. If Patrick Bamford isn’t scoring, you need to look at who else is and who is creating.

Leicester were better than us defensively, got up to the ball better than us which is very unusual to see, and they denied Pablo Hernandez the space and time to do what he can do.

It was interesting to see his reaction after the substitution because you don’t normally associate that kind of stroppiness with him, or expect him to throw his toys out for not getting the game time he thinks he deserves perhaps.

When you play for a Bielsa team, everyone is in the same boat, they all have to put a shift in and they all have to do their job and they all know he will change it if it’s not working. When you see him going off, showing his frustration like that, it suggests he might not be happy with his game time, particularly given his age and the stage of his career he has reached. He will think he can bring more to the table than he did last night and he’s entitled to be disappointed, there’s nothing wrong with that, but his reaction didn’t look good to me. That would be something they’ll have to speak about.

He’s a very important player and can unlock doors, so he needs to be on the same page as the rest of the team. If that had happened in my team and I was Liam Cooper, I would certainly have had a word and said we don’t act like that, we’re representing Leeds United.

The Leicester game is done now, it’s gone and they have to move on quickly and try to start brightly on Saturday at Crystal Palace. Going two goals down as early as they did on Monday made life very difficult because, in the Premier League, that usually means you don’t have a chance.

Against Palace, another team with organisation, attacking ability and threats, we have to be mindful of what they can do and we have to start well. I would like to see Klich playing further forward and Pascal Struijk is the one, for me, to take the Phillips role.

I know he will have been gutted to have been taken off so early against Villa but he would give a bit more defensive strength and security in front of the back line. Hopefully he starts and, hopefully, Leeds tighten up defensively and put Monday’s defeat firmly behind them with a win.

Dominic Matteo's column in association with Data Facilities