Here are the latest Leeds United morning headlines on Wednesday, February 9.
Gerrard full of praise for ‘world class’ Bielsa
When Leeds make the trip to Villa Park this evening, it will be the first time Steven Gerrard faces a team managed by Marcelo Bielsa.
Both coaches are at opposite stages of their careers and the Aston Villa boss knows that the difference in experience could go some way to deciding tonight’s result.
Speaking to Birmingham Live, Gerrard said: “It’s the first time against Bielsa obviously I was only up in Scotland prior.
“He’s obviously a very experienced coach and he’s got a world class reputation and rightly so, you know, where he’s been and the challenges he’s had and had success at.
“He’s a fascinating character from the outside. I’m really looking forward to competing against him.
“Leeds will be a dangerous team. I’ve watched enough of them over the years and recently to know that, on their day, they are capable of beating most teams in the league.”
Pundits predict tough evening for Leeds
The Whites will hopefully go into the match this evening refreshed off the 18-day break since they were last in action, against Newcastle.
However, their opponents have benefitted from a very similar break and will be keen to make it consecutive Premier League victories after their win at Everton.
Leeds travel to the West Midlands as underdogs and the pundits in charge of predictions believe that the bookmaker’s odds are a fair reflection of how the game at Villa Park will pan out.
Mark Lawrenson and Paul Merson expect Gerrard’s side to claim all three points, predicting 2-1 and 3-1 score lines respectively in favour of the hosts.
Michael Owen also believes Villa will be the victors this evening given the injury problems that continue to affect Bielsa and Leeds.
Cresswell applauds impressive U23 fans turn out
Leeds fans showed just how much they have missed football at Elland Road in the last few weeks as they turned out in their droves for the U23s’ 3-0 victory against Liverpool U23 on Monday evening.
Over 8,600 supporters watched on as an inspired performance from Crysencio Summerville helped Mark Jackson’s side to a convincing win.
Charlie Cresswell returned to action for the match after a relatively lengthy injury lay-off and his excitement was clear for all to see in his post-match interview with LUTV.
"Today in front of the fans it was mint,” he said. “They all got up and started singing, loved it I was looking around like that going 'alright Charlie, switch on now, come on', but yeah it was really good.
"It gives us a massive boost [playing here]. We love coming to play at Elland Road, it gives us a much better feeling than playing at Thorp Arch, as it should. We love it, we'll always give 100% no matter what, or where it is.
"We've been looking for a win for a while now, especially in front of all these [fans] and to get a clean sheet makes it all even better."
Read more here.
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