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Jamie Kemble

Leeds United suffer injury blow as Robin Koch stands out in Wolves defeat

Here is your Leeds United morning digest with all the fallout from Monday night's 1-0 defeat to Wolves.

Cooper injury blow

Liam Cooper pulled out Leeds United's starting XI for the defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers after appearing to suffer a relapse of his groin injury in the warm-up.

The Whites skipper had been named in the side to face Wolves despite returning home from early from the international break, but appeared to pull up in the warm-up and left early after talking to the medical staff.

Pascal Struijk replaced the Scot in the starting line-up, handed a second start of the season following his appearance at Anfield on the opening weekend of the campaign.

Leeds were left short at the back following the international break, with Diego Llorente also returning with a groin issue, that ruled him out of the matchday squad against Nuno's side.

Jamie Shackleton took Stuijk's place in the bench, while Luke Ayling assumed the captain's armband.

Full story here

The full Bielsa transcript

Leeds United suffered their first home defeat of the 2020-21 campaign on Monday evening after Raul Jimenez's deflected second-half strike sealed a narrow 1-0 victory for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Marcelo Bielsa was forced into a late pre-match change when his skipper Liam Cooper pulled up injured in the warm-up with a recurrence of the groin problem that saw him return early from the international break. Pascal Struijk replaced Cooper in the Leeds defence.

Post-match press conference with Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa following their 1-0 loss to Wolves in the Premier League

Leeds dominated the first half but could not carve out any clear-cut chances as the sides went in level.

Wolves turned in a much-improved display after the break, with Leeds having VAR to thank for chalking off a superb Romain Saiss volley eight minutes into the second half. An opener came with 20 minutes remaining, as a Jimenez shot from outside the box took a huge deflection off Kalvin Phillips, leaving Illan Meslier with no chance to save it as the visitors held on for the win.

Here is every word from Bielsa's post-match press conference.

How unlucky to lose?

Given how the game went we thought we did enough to create a lead.

The final ball not good enough?

When an offensive team doesn’t take their chances the opponent grows confident.

See the full transcript here

Player ratings

As ever, Beren Cross rated the Leeds players following the defeat to Wolves. Here is a taster.

1 Illan Meslier - seven

Nothing he could do about the opening goal. Massive deflection from Kalvin Phillips wrong-footed him. Made a couple of excellent saves, especially from a Raul Jimenez curler outside the box. Not a lot else for him to do, especially in the first half.

2 Luke Ayling © - seven

Played his part in the first-half dominance, popping up many times around the opposition box. Linked up well with Helder Costa down the right flank. One of a few to fade in the second period.

5 Robin Koch - eight

Another composed, assertive display from the Germany international. Won his headers, won his tackles and took risks with the ball at his feet.

See the full ratings here

21 Pascal Struijk - six

Solid in the first half, but saw some errors and slips in the second half as the pressure came on from the visitors. Initial slip gave Jimenez the time and space to begin his dribble before shooting for the opening goal.

15 Stuart Dallas - six

Steady from the Northern Ireland international. Showed willing to get forward, but nothing quite seemed to come together for him.

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