Promotion-chasing Leeds United look like being rewarded for sticking with Plan A

Pablo Hernandez, of course, came up with an 89th-minute winner that was pure drama, in a season full of it, against his former club and its significance was seen in the celebrations. The coaching staff, the substitutes, every player on the pitch, their joy betrayed the importance they attached to this game and its result.

Bielsa, of course, wasn’t involved in any wild touchline jigs or knee slides onto the pitch, because he isn’t enjoying it. He cannot enjoy it. Not until it’s done.

The bid to make 2019/20 the club’s last season in the Championship was centred around Plan A from the very start. The same plan that very nearly, but heartbreakingly didn’t work in 2018/29, but done better.

Almost exactly the same squad, with a few additions, doing the same things but doing them better.

The Liberty Stadium was as noisy as a near-empty stadium can be, for around 75 minutes of this vital fixture. Leeds director of football Victor Orta and head coach Bielsa filled the air with impassioned pleas and encouragement.

Much of Bielsa’s output was simply a request for more. More of the same. And when the winner came, from a Luke Ayling cut back, it was exactly that. It was more of what Leeds have done ever since Bielsa got his hands on them.

The first half did little to ease the frayed nerves of a club teetering on the edge of history.

Having spent the first quarter of an hour spectating and contemplating on his bucket or his haunches, Bielsa watched his side struggle to build attacks with fluency or frequency and come under some pressure themselves from a Swansea looking to profit from the many set-pieces they were winning. Bielsa’s vocal interjections began and only ever seemed to increase in volume and regularity.

He wanted more movement from his attackers, who simply couldn’t get into the game for long periods. Ayling would get the ball on halfway, right at the touchline, look up and see white shirts in close proximity to him and anyone he might like to pass to. Several attempts to find Tyler Roberts came to nought.

Mateusz Klich wasn’t really in the game, Jack Harrison was quiet by his usual standards and Helder Costa had a couple of runs but little else to write home about.

Going down the tunnel at half-time with just a well-saved Patrick Bamford shot, on his weaker foot, from a ball that bounced into his path with a large measure of luck, Leeds looked frustrated.

Bielsa, unsurprisingly, turned once again to Pablo Hernandez and Gjanni Alioski, two men who have come on to great effect during the run-in. They replaced Stuart Dallas, who played left-back when Leeds had the ball and tracked Jay Fulton in midfield when they didn’t, and Roberts. The plan didn’t change, just the personnel carrying it out.

Hernandez started popping up on the right, always in just enough space to operate and manoeuvre, allowing Leeds to gain ground. They began to look more ominous and, while there still wasn’t a plethora of chances, there was an intensity to the game.

Swansea still possessed a threat, Conor Gallagher’s rasping shot that Illan Meslier did well to tip over, was a reminder of that.

But the Swans did begin to retreat and Leeds began to dictate. When Hernandez got the ball, Ayling would bomb on towards the right corner flag and that looked Leeds’s most promising avenue to explore.

Their next big chance came from the left, however. Hernandez was still involved, spotting the run of Harrison and finding him, the winger volleying the ball across goal to Bamford, who should have headed home but saw his effort palmed out by Freddie Woodman.

Hernandez found Harrison again, he fired over and Bielsa paced up and down his technical area. A Bamford dummy, Alioski’s pass through legs, a touch from Klich and a shot off target by Hernandez had the head coach pacing again.

Then, in a move Leeds fans have grown so accustomed to seeing, Ayling reached the byline and pulled the ball back to the very man you would put your shirt on, from eight yards. Hernandez did the rest, taking a touch and squeezing a shot beyond Woodman’s hand into a space not a great deal bigger than a football.

With 89 minutes on the clock, there were always going to be more nervous moments and the sight of goalkeeper Erwin Mulder, Swansea’s replacement for the injured Woodman, rushing upfield for a corner, threatened to bring drama of the unwelcome kind. The promotion race isn’t, not yet. But Leeds have a man with a plan and it’s all coming together quite nicely.

Swansea: Woodman (Mulder 90), Naughton, Cabango, Guehi (Celina 90), Roberts, Fulton (Byers 90), Grimes, Bidwell (Cullen 90), Gallagher, Ayew, Brewster (Routledge 81). Unused substitutes: van der Hoorn, Dyer, Kalulu, Dhanda.

Leeds: Meslier, Ayling, White, Cooper, Dallas (Alioski 46), Phillips, Helder Costa (Shackleton 90), Klich, Roberts (Hernandez 46), Harrison (Berardi 90), Bamford. Unused substitutes: Douglas, Poveda-Ocampo, Miazek, Struijk, Bogusz.

Referee: K Stroud (Hampshire).

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