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Football London
Football London
Sport
Joe Doyle

Marcelo Bielsa confirms Leeds United's starting XI to face West Ham

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa has taken the unusual step of naming his starting XI to face West Ham United two days early.

The two teams meet at Elland Road in the Premier League on Friday night, and there were questions over who would be lining up in defence for Bielsa's side.

When asked who would be partnering Liam Cooper in defence, Bielsa replied via his interpreter that it "could be Ayling, it could be Phillips."

The manager was then asked whether he would be keeping West Ham guessing, and proceeded to name the entire starting XI for the clash against David Moyes' team.

West Ham FFOTY 2020

"Rodrigo Moreno is going to come in for [Diego] Llorente, and the XI is going to be Meslier; Dallas, Ayling, Cooper, Alioski; Phillips, Klich, Moreno; Raphinha, Bamford and Harrison."

Leeds have been in mixed form of late, with a draw against Arsenal and a win over Everton bookended by a heavy 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace and a 3-1 loss against Chelsea last time out.

Bielsa's side are currently 14th in the table, but just three points behind West Ham in eighth position.

Moyes will be hoping his side can bounce back from their own 3-1 defeat last time out against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Manchester United side, with the Hammers letting a 1-0 lead completely turn around within the space of 13 minutes.

The match was not without controversy, however, with the ball appearing to go out of play before Paul Pogba's equaliser in the 65th minute.

"So whose job is it do that? It's the linesman's isn't it?" Moyes said following the game.

"His first job is to look. He says he turned away because he was looking for an offside; the first thing to do is see if the ball was in play or not.

"The ball was over my head; I was probably in the best position of anybody, I was on the touchline.

"The ball was over my head and out! And I think you see the reaction of the players who were all sort of turning away, we’ve nearly turned off completely.

"We were amazed he did not put his flag up for the ball being out of play."

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