Saint Samu, I like it. According to Thomas Christiansen the star man of Leeds United will now return to the fold for the trip to bottom side Birmingham City on Saturday. The Spanish midfielder hasn’t played since a 1-0 win over Norwich, a game he was subbed off late on, very unlike him to come off. A calf strain the issue, and last night Christiansen admitted he was fit, but for tactical reasons, as well as being rested he was left out.
Two games without Saiz and two wins which is brilliant considering how good he has been and how important he is for us. Getting through the games is a struggle, both have been but luckily others have stepped up. I think our main issue without Saiz is ball retention. We can’t seem to hold the ball further up the pitch when he isn’t in the side. Pablo Hernandez drifts wide and drops deep more than Saiz does and we just don’t have the movement. Six points from those two games is a great return but you can’t help feel that if it was against the better teams we would have been in big trouble. It highlights the need for recruitment in January and luckily for us Pablo Hernandez decided to come up with two moments of magic in the games.
The return of Saiz against Birmingham will be perfect timing because the Blues are bottom of the league, not scoring and that is sure to look completely wrong when we go there, just like Burton who can’t win a home game looking like they would for a fair chunk of the game last night. The most positive thing about Saiz returning is that he will be extremely fresh. players need a rest during this period and I really hope Thomas Christiansen is planning on resting other players during the next week or so, because some looked very jaded last night and could probably do with having a game of two out, the prime example being Luke Ayling, a player who said that one of the main issues last season was the lack of rotation within the squad. So far he has started every game this season, the only player to do so.
