Poveda & Struijk start, Bamford dropped as Bielsa rings changes – Leeds starting XI v Derby
Marcelo Bielsa has confirmed his Leeds United starting XI for the game against Derby County at Pride Park this afternoon.
Surprisingly, Bielsa hasn’t named his strongest side and has made a number of changes, giving starts to both Pascal Struijk and Ian Poveda.
Jamie Shackleton gets a start as well with Tyler Roberts starting up front instead of Patrick Bamford.
It means that Mateusz Klich’s run of consecutive starts ends at Pride Park today – he’s made 92 on the bounce before today.
The other big news is that Kiko Casilla starts in among the seven changes – only Gaetano Berardi, Ben White, Stuart Dallas and Roberts survive the cull.
The team news was announced on the official Leeds Twitter page ahead of the 2pm kick-off.
Leeds have already been confirmed as champions and the best team in the Championship this season.
It would be fantastic to see a five-star performance and the Leeds players will definitely be able to play without any pressure on their shoulders for the first time in a long time.
However, the distractions over the past 48 hours have been huge and each day has delivered something else to these Leeds heroes – promotion on Friday, the trophy on Saturday.
Bielsa will want to go out on a high with two wins – the question is, can the Leeds players shake off their hangovers and put in a display worth of champions?
We assume that his selection today has got a lot to do with how certain senior players are feeling but we’re absolutely delighted to see Struijk, Poveda and Shackleton from the off.
It’s set to be an absolutely fascinating game.
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