Marcelo Bielsa admits Mateusz Klich mistake following Leeds United's defeat at Birmingham

Marcelo Bielsa admitted he had made a mistake with his positioning of Mateusz Klich and criticised his substitutions after Leeds United’s 1-0 defeat at Birmingham City.
Leeds United midfielder Mateusz Klich.Leeds United midfielder Mateusz Klich.
Leeds United midfielder Mateusz Klich.

The Argentinian said Klich’s deep early role had compromised Leeds’ attacking play on a frustrating afternoon in Birmingham and conceded he failed to change the game with three alterations in the second half.

Klich played as a holding midfielder initially after Bielsa fielded a three-man defence to counter the threat of City’s front two, Che Adams and Lukas Jutkiewicz.

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Adams scored on 29 minutes, forcing Bielsa to tinker with his system and edge Klich further up the pitch.

Stuart Dallas replaced Jack Harrison at half-time and Kemar Roofe and Jack Clarke appeared from the bench with 20 minutes to go but Leeds struggled to trouble a rigid Birmingham backline.

Bielsa said: “The position of Klich didn’t help the team to create chances in attack. After they scored we moved his position and he started to attack more. Our attacking improved.

“The decisions I made from the bench couldn’t change the result in the way I wanted to do. The changes I made weren’t enough so I would criticise myself for that.

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“In the last 20 minutes we couldn’t create chances. We had a lot of options on the bench to make changes and the decisions on the changes were not the best ones. I take the responsibility about the positioning of Klich too.”