Marcelo Bielsa wants Jack Grealish to start against Leeds United
Marcelo Bielsa hopes to see Jack Grealish feature when Leeds United face Aston Villa on Saturday.
The Villa captain is a doubt after recently suffering a leg injury, having missed his side’s 2-1 defeat to Leicester last weekend.
Despite Leeds being given an apparent advantage should Grealish fail to be passed fit on Saturday, Bielsa would rather face Villa at full strength.
Talking ahead of the Premier League fixture (via BBC Sport), Bielsa described Grealish as “a great player who can unbalance you”.
“I always prefer that opponents have their best players available,” the Argentine said, “because even if that fortifies a team and makes them more scary to face, it’s also a stimulus for us to face such players and to try to neutralise them.”
While Villa could be without their talisman, Leeds will also see a number of first-team regulars miss out at Elland Road, with Kalvin Phillips, Rodrigo and Robin Koch to remain on the sidelines.
Rather take the advantage
While we admire Bielsa’s thinking behind Grealish providing Leeds with additional impetus to perform, we’d rather the Villa captain miss the game at Elland Road.
Aside from being someone who can create chances and win free-kicks, the England international is a skilful player who can cause damage to Leeds’ backline, as well as bring other attacking players into play.
Many clubs will likely relish the opportunity to face Villa without their star player and we should count ourselves as one such club fortunate to avoid him, both as a player who can cause trouble and as a leader on the field.
With a number of our players missing this weekend it benefits Leeds not to have to worry about the tricky playmaker.
In other Leeds United news, Marcelo Bielsa wants to sign Torino centre-back Nicolas Nkoulou in the summer.