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Elliott Jackson

Leeds United fans delighted as Marcelo Bielsa is handed quadruple injury boost at West Ham

Leeds United fans have expressed their delight after Kalvin Phillips, Rodrigo Moreno, Gaetano Berardi and Ian Poveda were all named in the squad to face West Ham.

All four players have suffered with various degrees of injury problems recently, with Berardi back in the Whites' first-team squad for the first time since the penultimate match of last season's Championship-winning campaign.

The headlines news is the return of Phillips, who comes straight back into the starting XI at the expense of Pascal Stuijk, whilst Rodrigo joins Poveda and Berardi amongst the substitutes.

The 25-year-old has missed Leeds' last four matches after he limped off in the closing stages of Leeds' 2-0 win over Crystal Palace last month.

His return and an overall strong substitutes bench caught the eye of most Leeds fans, as did the absence of Struijk and Pablo Hernandez from the bench.

Leeds have a terrible record in London and are yet to taste victory under Marcelo Bielsa.

The Argentine boss was under no illusions at the difficulty facing his side on Monday night, taking on the high-flying Hammers who have exceeded expectations to sit seventh in the Premier League table, with two games in hand on fourth-place Chelsea.

"A secret or something special I don’t observe. They’ve been able to maintain a stable partnership in midfield," Bielsa told the press in his pre-match briefing.

"They are two players who are very important. For each of the attacking positions, they have two players.

Especially with the two wingers and offensive midfielder. The four full-backs they possess are important players. Apart from that, they have resolved the absence of [Arthur] Masuaku.

Their two goalkeepers have shone and the centre-backs, not only have they been sure at the back, they have also contributed goals in attack.

"They have a very good set-piece taker with his left foot and the manager has been able to obtain some very good minutes of football with that team."

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