Brendan Rodgers hails Marcelo Bielsa as football 'pioneer' ahead of Leeds United clash

Leicester City head coach Brendan Rodgers has hailed Marcelo Bielsa as a 'pioneer' having taken inspiration from him at the start of his coaching career.

Rodgers will go head-to-head with the Argentine on Monday evening in the Premier League with Leeds United hosting the Foxes at Elland Road.

The meeting between the two sides will be the first in over three years, when a League Cup clash pitted the pair together at the King Power stadium.

Bielsa's men enter the clash having won three out of their opening six games as a newly-promoted side while Leicester have four victories this term so far.

Rodgers, though, has praised the man who will be sat in the opposition dugout in LS11, believing he has left his mark on football.

"He's a wonderful pioneer of our game," Rodgers said.

"He plays a unique style. It's very man-to-man marking. They try to run the legs off you and you have to run like hell within the games to keep up with them.

"Lots of rotation, lots of mobility in the team. They want to create and score goals but at the same time they offer up space and hopefully you can exploit it.

"He's [Bielsa] been great, he's taken a great club out of the Championship into the Premier League and they've had a terrific start.

"I've been following him a long time. I first started coaching back in the 90s and obviously when I was looking into coaching, not just in our country but around the world he was at that point at Argentina.

"I've followed him really from that point, through from Argentina and Chile and then obviously he goes into club football, back into Athletic Bilbao and that was obviously where lots of people will have seen him in terms of how they play."

Asked about whether the visitors will try and utilise leading marksman Jamie Vardy, he said: "Well he's such a phenomenal striker. He's scored against all levels of teams throughout his career.

"He's been a breath of fresh air to work with. A boy that constantly threatens the backline. But not just runs, the timing of his runs is exceptional. How often he gets in. And when he's in there, he's a brilliant finisher.

"Of course Leeds give you space. They have a brilliant, really unique way of playing in the Premier League but they give you space. And it's certainly something that he thrives on."