Bielsa takes shine to ‘untouchable’ centre-mid after 17-assist season – report
Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa is interested in a number of players at his former club Lazio, according to Il Messaggero.
The Italian newspaper reports that Bielsa has taken a shine to centre-back Luiz Felipe, left-back Jordan Lukaku, central midfielders Luis Alberto and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and forward Ciro Immobile.
Although Bielsa is a fan of those players, it is understood that Alberto, Milinkovic-Savic and Immobile are “untouchable”.
Alberto, 27, was in stunning form for Lazio last season as the one-time Spain international scored seven goals and supplied 17 assists in 41 appearances across all competitions.
Only Atalanta’s Alejandro Gomez assisted more goals than the former Liverpool and Barcelona midfielder in Serie A last term [Squawka].
Stats by WyScout show that Alberto’s xA (expected assists per 90 minutes in all competitions) last season was 0.3 while his actual assists per 90 minutes was 0.34, which highlights how on-point the Spaniard was for Lazio in 2019/20.
Alberto also boasted a pass accuracy of 84.7 per cent, completing 63 per cent of through-balls and 61.9 per cent of passes into the penalty area.
Although he flopped at Liverpool, Alberto has come a long way since then and most Premier League clubs would be lucky to have a player with his vision and passing ability in their midfield.
Unfortunately, we think it would be pretty impossible for Leeds to be able to sign the Spanish central midfielder.
Il Messaggero reports that Lazio view Alberto as “untouchable”, which suggests they have absolutely no interest in selling him.
And Leeds don’t have a major need for a new central midfielder, which Bielsa likely to stick with his current options in that area of his squad rather than spend big money on a new addition.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay has addressed the issue of Rodrigo’s potential quarantine in the UK.