Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers has hailed Marcelo Bielsa as a 'pioneer' as he prepares to take his side to Elland Road to face Leeds United on Monday evening.
The Northern Irishman is preparing to face the Leeds head coach for the first time in his career and has revealed he has been following the Argentine's career for more than 20 years.
"He's brilliant," Rodgers told Sky Sports News.
"I've been following him a long time. I first started coaching back in the 90s and obviously when I was looking into coaching, not just in our country but around the world he was at that point at Argentina.
"I've followed him really from that point, through from Argentina and Chile and then obviously he goes into club football, back into Athletic Bilbao and that was obviously where lots of people will have seen him in terms of how they play."
Bielsa has consistently drawn plaudits since arriving at Leeds in 2018 and after leading the Whites to the Championship title last season, he has the Yorkshire side well-placed in the top half of the Premier League this term.
"He's a wonderful pioneer of our game," Rodgers continued. "He plays a unique style. It's very man-to-man marking. They try to run the legs off you and you have to run like hell within the games to keep up with them.
"Lots of rotation, lots of mobility in the team. They want to create and score goals but at the same time they offer up space and hopefully you can exploit it.
"He's been great, he's taken a great club out of the Championship into the Premier League and they've had a terrific start."
Bielsa admitted in his pre-match press conference that he will not make any special plans to deal with the threat of Foxes striker Jamie Vardy, but Rodgers is hopeful that his leading scorer will be able to take advantage of Leeds' expansive style of play.
"Well he's such a phenomenal striker. He's scored against all levels of teams throughout his career. He's been a breath of fresh air to work with. A boy that constantly threatens the backline. But not just runs, the timing of his runs is exceptional. How often he gets in. And when he's in there, he's a brilliant finisher.
"Of course Leeds give you space. They have a brilliant, really unique way of playing in the Premier League but they give you space. And it's certainly something that he thrives on."
Leeds host the Foxes at Elland Road in an 8pm kick-off on Monday evening.
