da winzada777： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.
da betsul： Leeds United laboured to a 1-0 win against Reading on Tuesday evening, and it’s fair to say that the Whites weren’t at their very best at the Madejski Stadium.
Indeed, Marcelo Bielsa’s side had to leave it late in order to pick up all three points against Reading as they relied on an 87th-minute winner to break the deadlock.
Leeds only had two shots on target all evening as they struggled to really create anything, but one man who was able to make things happen was Helder Costa.
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Snapshot
Costa’s introduction to the game came in rather unfortunate circumstances as Tyler Roberts limped off injured just after the half-hour mark against Reading.
With the game level at 0-0, the Portuguese winger was subbed on for Roberts as he took Pablo Hernandez’s place on the right-wing with the Spaniard moving inside to take up the number 10 role vacated by the injured Welshman.
Changed the attack
Not only was Costa effective when he came on against Reading, but he completely changed the way that Leeds attacked during the game.
Take a look at Hernandez’s heatmap (right) from just after Roberts’ injury compared to Costa’s (left) at full-time and it’s clear to see how the Wolves loanee changed the way Leeds were going forward.
As you can see, when Hernandez was being played out on the right he’d often drift inside or drop deeper, and that wasn’t proving very effective as the Spaniard completed just one key pass all evening.
In contrast, Costa stayed wide for the majority of the time out wide, rarely coming inside, and while this could be seen as being one-dimensional and predictable, the 25-year-old’s pace and dynamism allowed him to be the most creative player on the pitch on Tuesday.
Costa played three key passes while also delivering the vital cross that allowed Jack Harrison to net the winner.
It was arguably the summer signing’s best performance since joining the Elland Road outfit as he got his second assist of the season against the Royals.
In other news, check out what Phil Hay has said about Leeds’ plans in January..