Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa has confirmed he brought midfield architect Pablo Hernandez back into the starting line-up for the Whites' 2-1 win over Luton Town because he had worked his way back up to a level he could compete at.
The 34-year-old playmaker, who put pen to paper on a new two-and-a-half year deal with the club last week, regained his place in Bielsa's starting XI at the expense of Helder Costa, who dropped to the bench in a rare case of the Argentine making a change to his side that has not been enforced by either injury or suspension.
It was Hernandez's first start since returning from a mixture of muscle and hamstring injuries, after appearing as a second-half substitute in the wins against Queens Park Rangers and Blackburn Rovers respectively.
On his decision to reinstate Hernandez to the starting line-up, Bielsa, who has now guided Leeds to three successive Championship wins, said: "He came back to the team because while he was injured, in the last week we saw he had recovered his level to compete. That meant he recovered his place in the team."
It was thought one of Bielsa's reasons for drafting Hernandez back into the starting line-up could have been because of his technical ability to unlock tight defences, particularly on a small pitch like Luton's.
When asked if that was a reason behind his thinking to start the Spanish midfielder, Bielsa admitted it is always more difficult for teams to attack when having to play in smaller spaces.
Bielsa continued: "You play in small-sized spaces. When you have reduced spaces it’s always difficult for the team who attacks and with the pitch smaller, this difficulty increases.
"When you play in small spaces, the possibility to score when you build the attack decreases. And that means that it allows the team defending can counter attack.
"This is a team compact in defence, they recover and they counter attack very fast. They play long balls after to recover. In this pitch long balls means going from box-to-box."
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