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Leeds United boss Daniel Farke admits he had Saturday's game at Hull City in mind when he replaced Manor Solomon against Blackburn Rovers but that wasn't the only reason behind the change.
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The Israel international had just produced the cross of the game, taking his marker down the left flank towards the byline and putting a dangerous ball right through the Rovers six-yard box for a sliding Daniel James. James was unable to make contact with the ball, the chance went begging and Solomon then saw his number go up on the substitutes board.
His response was to hold his arms out questioningly towards the Leeds bench and then he took off his gloves and threw them into the Elland Road dugout.
But while Farke wanted to protect the Tottenham Hotspur loanee, who has started to show the form he was expected to be capable of in the Championship, there was a tactical element to the substitution. As Solomon went off, on came Patrick Bamford to partner with fellow substitute Mateo Joseph up top. Farke wanted two strikers and more crosses into the area.
READ: Farke addresses non-use of ‘natural replacement’ during full-back crisis against Blackburn.
The German believes his change worked out, because it was a cross from Max Wober - who took on the left wing-back role in a formation switch - that was flicked on by Bamford and led to a foul on Joseph in the area. Pascal Struijk converted from the spot to make it 1-0 on 88 minutes, before Rovers equalised two minutes later to secure a 1-1 draw.
"We wanted to change the approach to two strikers in the box and to work a bit more with crosses," said Farke. "I wanted a left-footed player like Max [Wober] who can play wing-back. Manor naturally curls inside and goes for one-v-one situation. Obviously it was the plan to have a left-footed player who was good with crosses and it paid off with the penalty situation, a good cross from Max. You have to keep in mind another game in three days and hopefully Manor is fit for this game again. You have to take sometimes decisions anyhow. Obviously I would like to just bring players in, like Patrick Bamford and Mateo Joseph, and leave all the other offensive players also on the pitch. But it's not possible. Sometimes you have to substitute one or two players, and of course, they want to play each every minute. That's quite normal. Was just due to the situation that our approach was different and to work a bit more with crosses."
Solomon made his Leeds debut against Saturday’s hosts Hull back at the end of August and supplied an assist for a Joseph goal. But the winger picked up a hamstring issue, which stemmed from an initial back problem, and then took time to get back into his rhythm. Two goals in the 4-3 win at Swansea City hinted that Solomon might be nearing something closer to his best form and then he scored and added two more assists in the rout of strugglers Oxford United. After 18 appearances for the Whites, half of which have been starts, he has three goals and three assists to his name.