Good evening, Leeds fans. Here are your evening headlines for Saturday, October 31.
England call-up Southgate’s decision - Bielsa
Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa has refused to be drawn on whether in-form striker Patrick Bamford should receive an England call-up.
Bamford has been in excellent form this season with six goals in as many league outings, including a brilliant hat-trick in Leeds’ 3-0 win over Aston Villa last time out.
However, Bielsa insists England boss Gareth Southgate is the man to ask about Bamford’s national team chances.
“The national team manager looks at all the players that can play in a certain position and he has the possibility to compare them all,” Bielsa said via BT Sport.
“He would be the more adequate person to make this contribution as he compares all the players, while all the other managers are concentrating on their own team.
“All I can say is I would be very happy if Bamford is under consideration, but as I explained to you, I can’t have an opinion on this.”
Bielsa explains Struijk sub
Bielsa has explained he substituted defender Pascal Struijk in the first half of Leeds’ win over Villa due to fears over a potential red card.
Struijk was hooked just 21 minutes into the clash at Villa Park after having picked up an early yellow card for a foul on Jack Grealish.
But Bielsa insists he was forced into an early decision after seeing the speed and dynamism in Villa’s midfield.
"Pascal picked up an early yellow card and after this yellow card he had another foul which was a dangerous one," said Bielsa.
"There was a lot of mobility in the midfield, it was very dynamic and it was very easy for anyone to make a challenge out of time so as a result I was worried and made the substitution."
Foxes boss Rodgers praises ‘pioneer’ Bielsa
Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has called Bielsa a ‘wonderful pioneer of our game’ ahead of the Foxes’ trip to Elland Road on Monday night.
Both sides approach the game on the back of confidence-boosting wins with Leicester having beaten Arsenal after Leeds had seen off Villa.
And Rodgers has revealed he has followed Bielsa’s coaching career closely since becoming aware of the Argentine in the 1990s.
"I've been following him a long time, Rodgers told Sky Sports.
“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."
"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."
