Yahoo Finance Rodrigo hits last-gasp penalty to rescue point for Leeds against Wolves
Even on the day he chose a system associated more with Mike Bassett, Marcelo Bielsa contrived to halt Leeds’s slide in quintessential fashion. They were spared a second successive defeat by the 30-year-old Rodrigo, but his injury-time equaliser was the product of a faith in youth that has been a constant in Bielsa’s long career.
While leaving a fit-again Kalvin Phillips as an unused substitute, Bielsa turned to two teenagers. Crysencio Summerville and Joe Gelhardt are almost half a century Bielsa’s junior. He was manager of Argentina when they were born but Gelhardt brought a happy ending to what Bielsa had termed one of his saddest weeks as Leeds manager.
Perhaps it was a sign of the fearlessness of the young as Gelhardt tore into Wolves; he twice came close to scoring before he was nudged over by Nelson Semedo.
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Wolves objected to the award of the penalty – “very soft,” said Bruno Lage – but Gelhardt felt just too fast to stop legally.
An Elland Road debut and a second Premier League cameo proved memorable. “It was crazy,” said the young Liverpudlian.
A content Bielsa said: “In the last 15 minutes he was causing danger constantly. Him alongside Rodrigo created enough chances to win the game.”
Certainly, Gelhardt may form part of Bielsa’s legacy. Signed in August 2020 when Leeds capitalised on Wigan’s descent into administration, he offered an injection of energy and urgency. He dovetailed well with a senior partner, who came at rather greater cost and with more short-termism in mind.
“Rodrigo changed the course of the game in the last 30 minutes,” Bielsa said.
The Spaniard has probably changed too few since his £27m move from Valencia but whereas his afternoon threatened to be defined by a header he glanced wide a couple of minutes before Hwang Hee-chan opened the scoring, it ended with him acting as a talisman.
“Rodrigo took the responsibility of the penalty,” Bielsa said.
It was the kind that immediately had the air of a turning point. While Wolves were on course to register four successive top-flight wins for the first time since 1972, Leeds have made their poorest start to a season since 1988 and with Raphinha limping off were about to lose the match as well as their classiest player.
Bielsa switched away from the 3-3-1-3 formation used at Southampton last week for something more stereotypically British, the 4-4-2 beloved of the fictional Bassett.
Minus the injured Patrick Bamford, it left Leeds with a no-goal strike partnership; at least until Rodrigo sent José Sá the wrong way from the spot to open his account for the season.
Alongside him, Dan James had been pressed into service as an auxiliary centre-forward. “I liked James more in his natural position of left winger,” said Bielsa, admitting the experiment failed after relocating the Welshman for the second half.
His Leeds career has begun in underwhelming fashion whereas Wolves have reaped a dividend from their own, rather cheaper recruitment on the flanks.
Hwang’s bright beginning to life at Molineux makes him an exception in a team of slow starters. Wolves’ only goals in the opening half-hour since January have come courtesy of the South Korean and, after Semedo picked out Raúl Jiménez with a cut-back and the Mexican’s shot struck Jamie Shackleton, Hwang poked in from close range.
He is shaping up as one of the signings of the summer; no Wolves player got more than five league goals last season and the loanee from Leipzig has four already.
“For Hwang and his numbers and the opportunities he creates we are very happy,” said Lage.
He was less happy with another dramatic reversal. Wolves enjoyed injury-time drama last week when they scored a winner against Aston Villa in the fifth minute of injury time. They could rue it here. “We were in control of the game,” Lage said.
Then Gelhardt came on to add chaos.