‘We didn’t manage to fortify our offensive game,’ says Leeds United’s Marcelo Bielsa

The Whites have had an abysmal cup record during his tenure, with weak team selections often a factor. But even with a debut for 19-year-old right-back Cody Drameh at Arsenal on Tuesday, Bielsa’s teamsheet could be taken as a sign of intent.

Drameh was playing because Luke Ayling and Jamie Shackleton were injured, though the hope is the latter will be fit for Sunday’s Premier League game at Norwich City.

There were safety-first approaches elsewhere, too, with winger Raphinha left out but again expected to feature at Carrow Road. Diego Llorente was taken off in the second half, and Mateusz Klich and Liam Cooper were only substitutes.

“It was a big hope to be able to evolve in this competition,” insisted Bielsa after the 2-0 defeat. “Everything about competing, qualifying and advancing is attractive, and to have been eliminated is a big disappointment.

“What I had in mind with the change of Cooper for Diego was the succession of games isn’t always great for Llorente. (Dan) James and Rodrigo, who made important contributions in the first half, started losing the energy to constantly attack and generate movements as the game wore on and I thought (Crysencio) Summerville and (Sam) Greenwood could add a little bit of freshness and agility to our game.

“The substitutions are (only) well done if it improves what you want to do. Evidently we didn’t manage to fortify our offensive game in the second half, which is what we wanted to achieve.”

Leeds’ only League Cup win was 1968, their last major honour the last pre-Premier League title in 1992.