Diego Llorente is at Leeds United to fight directly with Robin Koch and Liam Cooper for starts as Marcelo Bielsa confirmed there will rarely be room for all three.
The Spain international arrived at Elland Road this week for a little over £18m from Real Sociedad and at 27 will expect to play more often than not in the Premier League.
Speaking for the first time about Llorente’s transfer, Bielsa settled any theories or debates about fitting all three of his international centre-backs into the same team.
“No, it’s not we plan to play with a back-three more often,” said Bielsa. “It’s not to increase competition because Pascal [Struijk] played a very important game at Liverpool.
“But also, yes, because, for example, in Koch's position he is the only right-sided centre-back we have at the moment.
“If he got injured we would have to get someone young from the youth teams or move [Luke] Ayling or [Kalvin] Phillips out of position.
“I believe, seeing as we don’t have [Gaetano] Berardi and Ben White having left, it was necessary to be able to count on two players for this position.”
Although he is right-footed, Llorente has played extensively on the left side of a pair for Sociedad across the past two seasons.
Bielsa confirmed as much in his press conference ahead of Sunday’s Sheffield United trip, underlining Koch and Cooper are equally under threat from the new man.
“He’s a centre-back who can play either side, on Koch’s side or Pascal and Cooper’s,” he said.
“Technically he has a sufficient technique to play in the Premier League and he also has the ability to adapt to the physical demands of the Premier League.”
Llorente had been playing for Sociedad before this transfer came about, so he does not arrive in West Yorkshire from a standing start.
Indeed, his last appearance was a full 90 minutes on September 13 before he watched a 0-0 draw with Real Madrid from the bench on Sunday, a by-product of his talks with United.
While it would be unusual for Bielsa to play Llorente immediately, the head coach does feel the defender would be ready if needed at Bramall Lane.
Being ready to face one of Europe’s greatest sides in Real at the weekend is more than sufficient a benchmark for Bielsa to feel he’s good for Sunday.
Making that comparison brought a wry grin to the Argentine’s face on Friday.
“I don’t have any physical preference compared to any other manager, especially at centre-back which is a position where you run the least,” he said.
“So, if he needed to play, he could. He was due to play against Real Madrid just before his transfer was agreed.
“As a result, if he was able or going to play against Real Madrid then he’s sufficiently prepared to play for us.
“It’s true this last week would have been atypical for him. He will need to meet his team-mates and adapt a bit more.”
