By Mark Smith

24th Mar, 2022 | 6:30pm

Pascal Struijk namedrops Philippe Coutinho after special Leeds United Q&A

Leeds United defender Pascal Struijk has named Aston Villa star Philippe Coutinho as the best opponent he has faced.

The Brazilian scored at Elland Road as one of our close rivals left West Yorkshire with a 3-0 victory in Jesse Marsch’s second game in charge.

Leeds fans won’t exactly take this well, and were likely hoping that Struijk would have picked someone from a different club.

Writing on his personal Twitter account this afternoon [24 March], Struijk certainly didn’t read the room when replying.

“[Eyes emoji] Philippe Coutinho,” he said, tagging him.

Fails to read the room.

This instantly led to Aston Villa fans gloating in the comments.

Some even suggested that they have started to imagine Kalvin Phillips playing alongside the Brazilian next season.

Interest is going into overdrive with the midlands club taking aim at the Yorkshire Pirlo, and although it looks unlikely, those fans will be dreaming anyway.

Phillips is on the verge of his return from injury and we can’t wait to see him shining on the pitch at Elland Road.

That is the main goal right now, and after that, we can put all of our eggs into the basket of a new contract, which is certainly more likely now.

Coutinho may have scored twice against us this season, as well as setting up both of Jacob Ramsey’s goals at Villa Park, but both games were certainly not us at our best.

Read the room, Pascal.

In other Leeds United news,  Andrea Radrizzani has broken his silence on Twitter sharing when he will leave the club