Here are your Leeds United evening headlines for Wednesday, October 21.
Koch steps up in absence of Cooper
Leeds United were in need of a cool head in defence for Monday evening’s clash with Wolves after long-serving club captain Liam Cooper pulled up with a recurrence of an injury in the warm-up.
Dutchman Pascal Struijk has caught the eye for Bielsa’s Whites in his fledgeling career, but it was only his second senior start at centre-half.
Summer signing Robin Koch stepped up and offered the leadership qualities that Leeds needed in the difficult circumstances, writes Kristan Heneage.
The Germany international has made over 80 appearances in the Bundesliga and displayed experience in an impressive individual display of aerial dominance and positional intelligence, in spite of United’s narrow 0-1 defeat.
Bielsa gives analysis of performance against Wolves
Marcelo Bielsa has had time to reflect on the Monday evening defeat to Wolves and he remains largely satisfied with United’s performance.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Aston Villa on Friday night, the Argentinian gave the latest injury news, spoke about Jack Grealish and the good start made by Dean Smith’s men as well as his more considered reflections on the last outing.
“We had a large percentage of dominance in the game which was around 70 minutes of the 90. The individual performances were, in general, all good,” he said.
“We attacked well, and we defended well, we created around 8-10 opportunities to score a goal.
“But in those 20 minutes our opponent scored and when you face a rival like we did on Monday who is very physical you enter a lot of duels, it’s very important that the chances you create, you make them into goals.
“So, the conclusion is we understand why we lost the game even though we shouldn't have as we dominated the large majority of it.”
Here’s every word he said of the trip to Villa Park.
Bielsa wary of increasingly confident Grealish
Ahead of Friday night's Premier League clash with Aston Villa, Bielsa has highlighted the threat and growing confidence of Jack Grealish.
The 25-year-old midfielder has gone from strength-to-strength since Villa’s promotion to the Premier League in 2019, and this season earned his first call-up to the England senior squad.
Grealish went on to make his Three Lions debut against Denmark at the start of last month and Bielsa believes that has imbued further belief into the Villa captain’s game.
“He’s a very good player,” Bielsa said. “It’s normal for a player once he’s been called up for the national team that he’s going to be confident and grow.”
