Nathan Jones lauds Leeds squad and backs Bielsa’s men for promotion

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Leeds United have faced Stoke City in their last two games, and Nathan Jones is backing the Whites to seal promotion out of the Championship.

In comments reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post, Nathan Jones has lauded Leeds’ squad and suggested that he would like to see Marcelo Bielsa’s men seal promotion to the Premier League this season.

Jones may well be sick of the sight of Leeds after the last week. United won their Championship meeting 3-0 at the weekend to pile the pressure on the Welshman with the Potters still bottom of the table.

And while Stoke were the team that went through to the next round of the Carabao Cup when they met again on Tuesday night, Leeds certainly made the evening uncomfortable for Jones as they came from 2-0 down to take the game to penalties.

And after getting to watch them up close for more than 180 minutes of action in just a handful of days, Jones explained what he finds so impressive about Bielsa’s men as he expressed a hope that they may be promoted together this season.

“The good thing about them is they’re a real humble group. I’m good friends with Luke Ayling, I’ve studied how they play, they’re a hard working group, there’s no real stars in this side,” he said, as reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post.

“Look you’re talking Kalvin Phillips at £25m the boy is a hard worker, he’s a top professional and I know from people I know here, he’s a humble kid as well. I’d like to go up but if I do, they’d be nice to go up too.”

Of course, the Elland Road faithful will not be taking anything for granted until their final position in the table is set in stone after how last season finished. But it is difficult to imagine that Leeds will not be in the mix when the campaign reaches the home straight.

They have started this season in fantastic form and it would be difficult to argue with those who would suggest that they are playing even better football than they were at this stage of last season. But while Leeds appear to have the tools needed to go one step further this term, it is fair to say that Stoke have a lot of work to do if they want to join the Whites in the promotion race.