Marcelo Bielsa has broken from his cup tradition with Leeds United and made six changes to his side for tonight’s EFL Cup tie with Crewe Alexandra.
Mark Jackson named arguably his strongest set of under-23s in Premier League 2 at Thorp Arch yesterday, which had intimated which direction Bielsa may go in this evening.
Illan Meslier, Luke Ayling, Patrick Bamford, Tyler Roberts, Stuart Dallas, Helder Costa, Pascal Struijk, Kalvin Phillips, Mateusz Klich and Jamie Shackleton are all included in the squad.
Historically, Bielsa has regularly made vast changes to his league line-ups when going into cup matches with the Whites.
Last season, for example, Bielsa made 11 changes to the team which visited Liverpool on the opening day when Hull City came to Elland Road for this stage of the EFL Cup.
It is just the six at Elland Road this evening, where Diego Llorente is the big surprise. He makes his first start of the season while Adam Forshaw starts for the first time since September 2019.
Starting line-up: Meslier; Shackleton, Llorente, Struijk, Firpo; Phillips; Costa, Forshaw, Roberts, Harrison; Rodrigo.
Substitutes: Klaesson, Ayling, Cresswell, Dallas, Klich, Summerville, Bamford.
