Leeds United 2-1 Bolton Wanderers: Indispensable
It was a battle to recapture the carefree spirit of the first half an hour, and it's Bielsa's permanent battle in sport; he intends to take not worrying about the opposition to its logical conclusion, so that whatever they're doing, his team keeps playing the same.
A year ago the Carabao Cup was the first time we fell in love with Samuel Saiz, Ezgjan Alioski and Caleb Ekuban, and this game with Bolton Wanderers was a chance to find some new flames among the new signings and youth players showing for the first time.
Instead, the first interest was in the players Marcelo Bielsa chose to keep from the two league wins. Luke Ayling, Kalvin Phillips and Samu Saiz would not have been anybody's idea of the spine of a side even three months ago, but they were in place to ensure standards and talent were still of the highest, while the debutants and kids around them tried to climb.
And Pontus Jansson. He returned from the World Cup and a summer holiday like an iron man in desperate search of oil; creaking and clanking after Clayton Donaldson, he made several trips to the bench for sachets of energy powder and drinks, and it wasn't only his body that was weak; he looked like he was remembering how to play. So this game will have done him good, but he probably needs a couple more like it before he's fully Jansson again.
It was fortunate that he could rely on Kalvin Phillips to manage him through it, something else we wouldn't have said last season. Flitting between midfield and defence like a moonbeam on a pond, Phillips waved Jansson forward with the ball and covered him, then ordered him back when it was time to defend again, all part of his new role as Bielsa's most important player. Phillips is playing like one of those fly-zapping blue lights in a chip shop, cleansing the air so Saiz can cook his chips to golden perfection.
Phillips looks newly confident, too. Last season he would do things as if he wasn't sure he was making the right decision, but the most demanding coach in world football has somehow given Kalvin faith in his own choices. Phillips used to pass to the goalkeeper as if it was a last resort, as if he thought Thomas Christiansen might tan his hide for it later; now he doesn't waver. If that's the ball that's the ball, and by giving it everything he's got, he gives it greater chance of being the right one.
You have to watch Phillips at this, because he's almost as hard to find, for opponents and spectators, as Saiz, but in a different way. You can spend ages scanning the pitch for Samu, trying to find the space he's found where no defender will ever find him; you can look in vain for Phillips, too, until you realise he was only about five yards from wherever the ball was, and now he's won it. Phillips has rapidly become indispensable, and that's why he played in this match.