Marcelo Bielsa addresses impact of new rules after Leeds United's first 'new normal' match at Cardiff City

Marcelo Bielsa wasn’t offering excuses after the Whites’ disappointing return to Championship action in Wales, nor was he seeking any.

His post match analysis was as rooted in facts and figures as always.

The Argentine pointed out Cardiff’s 100 per cent efficiency from their two shots on target, he highlighted the inaccuracy in his own team’s final third activity and that they had let slip a good opportunity.

He didn’t mention Pablo Hernandez, whose absence in attack had been keenly felt as Leeds probed and probed for openings that weren’t there or could not be found.

Earlier this season Bielsa was asked about how much Leeds missed the playmaker and his creativity and the head coach mused that the player who is out injured is always the one being asked about, following a disappointing result.

But when that player is Pablo and when the problem appeared to be a lack of magic in the final third, it’s an obvious question to ask.

Yet there were questions to be put to the Leeds boss that have never before been asked of him, thanks to the new set of circumstances football has been faced with.

Leeds did battle in an empty arena for the first time, in an alien environment with changes that did not suit their style, in a match scenario that was already less than idea.

Going a goal behind left Leeds with a mountain to climb and the game was already niggly before the new-fangled interruptions.

A drinks break in the first half was largely ignored by the Whites, keen to just get on and play the match, while Cardiff’s players went to the touchline and took a moment together to hear from boss Neil Harris.

The Bluebirds, who were organised and solid throughout, weren’t alone in making the game a stop-start affair, Leeds contributed 12 fouls to the 29 that took place during the 96 minutes.

And with another drinks break in the second half, plus the extra time taken to complete the combined eight substitutions, it left Leeds longing for longer periods of actual football.

A team like Leeds thrives on playing quickly, restarting the game swiftly, playing at a high tempo and attacking relentlessly, smothering the opposition and leaving them breathless.

Cardiff had ample opportunity to take breath and didn’t look at all like a side with a smaller gas tank than their visitors.

Bielsa, who has spoken about the perils of stop-start games before in the Championship this season, did not offer up the lack of time the ball was in play as an excuse, but he was asked if it made it harder for his team to settle into a rhythm.

“I think that we played few minutes in this match,” said the Leeds head coach on his post-game Zoom call.

“If you consider the substitutions, the interruptions for drinks and when the referee stopped for injured players. It is one of the matches where I think we’ve played fewest minutes.”

Yet as with all things, Bielsa’s analysis was without bombast or hyperbole and when it comes to conditions that both sides face or conditions that have been mandated by the game’s authorities, they are simply to be accepted.

“It is just like that,” he said.

“We should accept that usually you play 60 to 65 minutes and in some matches you play fewer minutes than this, without these stoppages.

“We had conditions to win the match even so.

“If we didn’t win the match, it was not for the interruption or for the few minutes we didn’t play.”

Should the reduction of minutes in which Leeds can actually play their football become a trend in the final stages of the season, it will simply make it more imperative that Leeds use the possession they have.

They cannot change how stop-start matches will be, they can only control what they do with the ball.

On Sunday they had 69 per cent of the possession, 17 shots and 10 corners with which to find a goal that would change the course of the game.

Only three of those shots were on target and few of their corners created much in the way of peril, for Cardiff’s goal.

That is something they can change. It’s entirely in their own hands.