Jesse Marsch has moved to explain his decision to take Wilfried Gnonto off at half-time during Leeds United’s 4-3 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. Gnonto was handed his full debut for the Whites after impressing off the bench in wins over Liverpool and Bournemouth.
Unfortunately, though, the forward got just 45 minutes on the field in north London before being replaced at half-time. The Italy international struggled to make a lasting impact on the game during his first start and many feared he had been withdrawn through injury after seeing him receive treatment on the field on a number occasions following comings together with Ben Davies and Ivan Perisic.
However, Marsch has allayed fears of an injury, instead explaining the substitution, with Sam Greenwood coming on, was made for tactical reasons as Leeds changed shape ever so slightly in the hope they could contain Spurs more.
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“Yeah, it was partly the tactical change,” Marsch said when asked about Gnonto during his post-match press conference. “We felt like we wanted to go to more 4-3-3 instead of 4-2-3-1.
He added: “In general, we really like Willy. I think his mentality to improve, his understanding of tactics, his intelligence, they're all at a really high level. So for a young player, he doesn't play like a young player which is great to see.
“He was really effective coming from the bench against Bournemouth. I think he was also good in this match but when we looked at the fact that we needed to make some tactical changes, we thought that that made the most sense to take him off.”
Gnonto has been named in the latest Italy squad by Roberto Mancini and he’ll travel to meet up with his national team to take part in friendlies against Albania and Austria next week.
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