Barnsley FC Callum Styles midfielder via Brentford
Leeds United v Southampton in a postponed position
When coaches start talking about their love for the FA Cup at a pre-match press conference, it is the prelude to a weakened team and a quick exit from the competition.
Leeds United coach Marcelo Bielsa can be accused of dishonest.
West Ham United manager David Moyes fell into distrust when the Argentine named his team for the December Premier League match. Confident in her players, Bielsa used to be unarmedly frank about her selections, but the complaint she won when Leeds lost to the Hammers put an end to that.
The Bielsa team was not the challenge at Broadfield Stadium, but you still can’t help but think that Leeds and Huddersfield Town missed an FA Cup circular this weekend.
Sheffield United desperately needed to beat Bristol Rovers for their own morale, but Covid’s neighbors on Wednesday, Middlesbrough, Doncaster Rovers (both also suffering) and Rotherham United can claim bigger fish to fry at either end of their divisions.
However, a smart start to the season has given Barnsley, Leeds and Huddersfield the freedom to attack the Cup as those five laudables did despite all this weekend, effectively in the case of Doncaster and the two Sheffield clubs.
Barnsley has played a full look and can now see a path to an FA Cup stopover from Chelsea. Huddersfield has made 11 adjustments and instead it is Ligue 1 Plymouth Argyle who will arrive at Bramall Lane in the fourth round.
Even with stalwarts such as Stuart Dallas, Luke Ayling, Patrick Bamford and Mateusz Klich at home, Bielsa named a Leeds team more than enough to do the opposite task to League Two Crawley Town and ruled the first half.
But interrupting Liam Cooper, Rodrigo and Pascal Struijk in that span and replacing them with teenagers sent a message to the festival that contradicted his pre-match verbal love letter and had to make some players doubt whether victory was so vital to him.
More importantly, it is an additional inspiration for bright hosts.
Since Bielsa has so far only undergone two brief BBC national interviews (one for television and one for radio), we do not know whether an injury or illness influenced the triple substitution or the original selection, but the cynical view is that it is only a matter of leg preservation for the Premier League.
Bielsa’s behaviour around the playoff has also fostered cynicism as much as his pre-match comments have ignited the romance between those of us who aspire to the wonderful festival being taken seriously.
“I think it’s healthy for large groups to help small groups and benefit from them,” he said less than 48 hours earlier.
“An expression of generosity is to compete with them as equals. “
The result to make another bankruptcy in Leeds’ un glamorous history of the even more disappointing murders of FA Cup giants.
Bielsa’s 0% record continues at a festival that, above all, deserves his boat as a romantic footballer – and sounds as if it were before the match.
It’s a shame.
It’s a festival Leeds could have reached at least in Wembley.
His fiendish football is best for this and he has already frightened Everton, Manchester City, Liverpool and FA Cup MASTERS Arsenal.
A first semi-final since 1987 would have been a compliment to Leeds enthusiasts who, like the rest of Britain, have had such a difficult 12 months.
His exciting 2020-2021 season has only 21 games left in 18 weeks and one part, and thanks to the 17 most sensible, they would never be relegated or qualified for Europe unless they passed the FA Cup.
Barnsley, unfortunately, won’t win the Cup, the fact that they reached a Wembley semi-final by beating Chelsea the last time Londoners arrived at Oakwell in 2008 means dreamers can still dream and that’s what the festival is.
As things are, it would be great to see the Reds live their dream and it would have been for a Huddersfield team that would have matched them as one of the smart stories of the 2020-21 championship.
This year, those dreams are more than ever. It’s a shame Leeds and Huddersfield haven’t done more to satisfy them.
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