Pablo Hernandez’s second-half goal was enough to secure Leeds United back-to-back victories in the Sky Bet Championship over the weekend, with Marcelo Bielsa’s side 1-0 winners against Reading at Elland Road.  

Leeds have been in patchy form since the turn of the year, but they’ve now taken seven points from their last three fixtures, which includes back-to-back wins for the first time since mid-December.

It hasn’t exactly been vintage viewing as Leeds have crept past Bristol City and Reading by a single goal, but shutting up shop defensively and making pressure count at the other end is never a bad habit to have.

On Saturday, Reading threatened Leeds, but a period of pressure shortly after half-time swung the game in Bielsa’s side’s favour, with Hernandez’s persistence eventually bringing the game’s opening goal on 57 minutes.

A big Kiko Casilla save denied Liam Moore an equaliser late in stoppage time and left Leeds to move five points clear of the chasing-pack in the play-offs, with themselves and West Brom starting to pull away once more following an inconsistent period.

Here, we take a look at what we learnt about Bielsa’s side…

Hernandez pulling the strings makes all the difference

A patchy run of form for Leeds in early 2020 coincided with their Spanish playmaker going off the boil, with Hernandez’s bad spell culminating in the defeat to Nottingham Forest at the start of February.

Since then, he’s improved at Brentford, looked something like his best against Bristol City and then produced a match-winning performance against Reading on Saturday.

Drifting from a central position into the right channel, Hernandez was a nightmare for the Reading defence to pick up, with the Spaniard’s ability to find little pockets of space really causing some dangerous moments for Leeds.

The accuracy of his crossing caused confusion, whilst his knack of twisting and turning defenders resulted in plenty of successful dribbles.

It was neat footwork that produced Hernandez’s goal, which came at the end of a move the playmaker started early in the second-half; taking the ball of Luke Ayling in a deep position, Hernandez set Leeds away down the right, with Mateusz Klich then feeding Helder Costa inside. The winger had the chance to wrap his left-foot around the ball and look for goal, but instead stopped it for Hernandez to rifle a shot that was blocked by Moore.

However, Hernandez was first to react to the loose ball in the area and good footwork took him around two defenders, allowing him to lift the ball into the roof of Rafael’s goal.

It was a moment of composure and a passage of play that emphasised how involved Hernandez was.

Casilla begins his road to redemption

 

It has been a woeful start to 2020 for Kiko Casilla, with his goalkeeping howlers costing Leeds vital points in the race for automatic promotion.

Casilla has been beaten at his near post regularly, found himself flapping at crosses under his crossbar and, of course, slip to gift the opening goal to Said Benrahma in the draw with Brentford.

Since then, however, he hasn’t conceded a goal and against Reading on Saturday dealt with the two efforts Mark Bowen’s side had on goal despite playing with a finger injury.

The first was an instinctive curling effort from George Puscas, which was beaten away well, but the second secured the points for Leeds at a time when they looked vulnerable; Moore got the better of Liam Cooper to break down the left-side of the penalty area, but meeting him was a onrushing Casilla, who blocked his goal-bound effort.

Of course, Leeds are likely to lose Casilla to a suspension and it remains to be seen if he’s available to face Middlesbrough on Wednesday, but this outing drew a handshake from Marcelo Bielsa at full-time, with the Spanish goalkeeper starting to win back the faith of all associated with Leeds.

Leeds rebelling against common stereotype

 

Since the turn of the year ‘Leeds are falling apart, again’ has been heard at Elland Road from fans of Sheffield Wednesday and Wigan Athletic, whilst Forest rubbed their noses in that possibility at the City Ground.

However, since then, Leeds have dusted themselves down and picked up a vital seven points in the automatic promotion race.

In comparison, Fulham and Nottingham Forest have two from their last three fixtures, whilst Brentford have three consecutive draws under their belts.

Both Fulham and Brentford kicked off before Leeds over the weekend and had the chance to put pressure on Bielsa’s side, but both failed to do that by drawing their respective fixtures. Forest were then held by Queens Park Rangers, leaving Leeds to move five points clear of the chasing-pack ahead of another midweek schedule.

Leeds weren’t holding their nerve as the division closed in over January and early February, but having drawn within striking distance, Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Brentford are all starting to lose their bottle and allow Leeds to put daylight back between them.

Of course, it isn’t over by any stretch of the imagination and Leeds might yet ‘fall apart’, but recent weeks have seen Marcelo Bielsa’s side rubbish that stereotype and leave the rest of the division feeling the heat.