Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa knows Anwar El-Ghazi well from his time in Ligue 1 with Lille – but the winger has joined another Championship club.
Leeds United retained their unbeaten start to the season, and cemented their place at the top of the Championship with that tense 2-2 draw at Swansea City on Tuesday night. But it wasn’t all positive in South Wales.
For the fourth league game in a row, Marcelo Bielsa picked exactly the same starting XI – until an injury suffered in the warm up by captain Liam Cooper gave Jamie Shackelton his chance.
With Bielsa seemingly unwilling to rotate heavily, Leeds star men may be at risk of flagging under the intense physical strain demanded of them, notably the forwards who are expected to press relentlessly from the front.
So if Leeds want to avoid the sort of post-Christmas collapse that has caught up with Bielsa in previous jobs, a little more squad depth wouldn’t go amiss. But it seems that The Whites have missed a trick with Anwar El-Ghazi, who would’ve been the perfect player to complete the former Chile boss’s squad.
The two-time Dutch international is a player Bielsa knows well. El-Ghazi was one of the few positives during his disappointing spell in charge of Lille last season and the 23-year-old clearly knows that the legendary Argentine demands from his players.
“He is a little bit different, he can be very aggressive and shout at people but then he’ll be very quiet,” El-Ghazi told the BBC. “He pushes everybody to the limit, for example my body fat used to be 10% or 11% and now it’s 8%.
“We train a lot, it’s very physically and mentally hard.”
The former Ajax winger has instead joined Aston Villa on loan from Lille, and, should he fulfil the dazzling potential he showcased in the Eredivisie with Ajax, it could become clear that Leeds should have made a move to reunite Bielsa with a player who boasts pace, trickery and impressive end product in abundance.
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