In the end, it turned out to be yet another miserable trip to the capital for Leeds United on Monday night.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side extended their wretched run of results in London with a dismal 2-0 defeat to West Ham in the Premier League, with the Whites now having lost 13 of their last 14 visits to the city.
Goals from Jesse Lingard and Craig Dawson were enough to consign them to a defeat, and while there were a number of poor performers on the night, Mateusz Klich’s shocker really stood out among the rest.
Is Klich past his best?
Yes!
No!
The Poland international’s form in recent weeks surely warranted him being dropped from the starting line-up against the Hammers, but once again, Bielsa chose to place his loyalty and faith in his midfielder.
And boy, was he made to regret that. Klich looked well off the pace in the opening 45 minutes of the contest, winning just one of his seven duels in total, losing 86% – the worst percentage of any Leeds player on the pitch.
There was none of the energy and dynamism on display that we see when Klich is at his absolute best, with the 30-year-old looking a shadow of his former self.
He made just the one tackle and recorded no interceptions, blocks or clearances whatsoever, while he wasn’t even a presence going forward either, with no shots on goal and no dribbles attempted.
The Leeds boss seemed to finally lose patience with him, and ended up hooking him at half-time, with Gjanni Alioski coming on in his place at the break.
And, writing in his post-match player ratings for Leeds Live, Beren Cross noted: “Has looked like a passenger for weeks and again was well off it in the capital. Just seemed totally empty and unable to provide any kind of control or presence in the centre. Overrun by Tomas Soucek and Declan Rice.”
If he needed to be dropped before the game, then there simply cannot be any excuses for Bielsa from not reaching that conclusion after watching Klich’s performance on Monday night against the Hammers.