‘Massive blow’ – Exclusive: Crippling new Leeds injury could spell Bielsa Jan u-turn – pundit
We’re delighted to welcome former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Leeds United…
Paul Robinson thinks that the injury to Liam Cooper has left Leeds in a situation that would “cripple any team”.
Cooper went off in the second-half of the 6-2 defeat against Man United and joins Robin Koch and Diego Llorente on the sidelines.
Robinson thinks that centre-back has been the problem position all season for Leeds and that Bielsa might need to u-turn on his declaration that he doesn’t want to bring in a new centre-back in January.
Bielsa had previously said he had enough cover in that position.
Talking exclusively to MOT Leeds News Robinson said, “It’s really worrying now that they’ve got Liam Cooper out, Robin Koch out, and Llorente still out.
“They’ve got three centre-halves injured and we already know Koch is out until the spring.
“It’s a been a huge problem position for us all season and it’s got worse now.
“Cooper is a massive blow. You hear Klopp going on about his players being injured but Bielsa has got three senior players out all in the same position.
“It would cripple any team. Depending on the length and the severity of the injuries Leeds are going to have to address this in January.”
Bielsa said that Llorente would be back in training for Leeds on Monday but he won’t want to rush him back.
He said ahead of his enforced debut that he wanted him to play in the under-23s to build up his fitness first.
That didn’t happen after Koch went off injured but Llorente picked up another injury on his debut.
We can’t see him starting against Burnley on December 27 and it could mean Luke Ayling and Pascal Struijk playing together in the heart of the defence.
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