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David Byrom

Aston Villa's Jack Grealish aims dig at Elland Road pitch as Leeds United lose to Brighton

Jack Grealish has aimed a dig at the Elland Road pitch after watching Leeds United struggle against Brighton.

The Aston Villa star was watching the Whites in action against Brighton on TV, with Marcelo Bielsa's side suffering a disappointing 1-0 defeat.

Bielsa's unique style of football has been hindered by the state of the Elland Road pitch, which has become heavy in recent weeks and cut up under players' feet.

Grealish noticed how many players were unable to deal with the pitch in Saturday's game, posting a picture of his TV on Instagram with the caption "Everyone just slips on this pitch" and three laughing emojis.

Grealish's criticism came after Leeds CEO Angus Kinnear promised to address the issue of the pitch in the summer.

The Whites were unable to relay the pitch in the close season due to the smaller gap than usual between campaigns due to the coronavirus suspension in March.

It means the Whites will have to continue to play on a frustrating surface for the time being, with plans to reconstruct the pitch not set to go ahead until the summer.

Kinnear wrote in his programme notes: "The process will start in the summer with the key technical element, a full reconstruction of the Elland Road playing surface.

"We had intended to do this last summer, but the process takes 14 weeks and so simply couldn’t be executed in a close season so dramatically shortened by the pandemic.

"The current Elland Road surface received justifiable criticism last year as the ancient drainage system was unable to deal with the torrential rain we experienced across December."

The CEO has said no criticism should be levelled at the club's ground staff due to circumstances beyond their control.

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