Marcelo Bielsa cannot be drawn on strength of Manchester City as Leeds United head coach makes Chris Wilder admission

MARCELO BIELSA will not be drawn on whether Saturday's visitors Manchester City are weaker than last year - and in any case the Whites coach is not comfortable discussing it.
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Leeds will take on the 2018 and 2019 Premier League champions at Elland Road for their second home game of the season in Saturday's 5.30pm kick-off which City approach having been stung 5-2 by visiting Leicester City last weekend.

It meant boss Pep Guardiola seeing one of his sides concede five goals for the first time in his managerial career and the club's two main strikers in Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus are both injured and facing around another month out.

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Yet Raheem Sterling then bagged a brace playing in the no 9 role in Wednesday night's Carabao Cup clash at Burnley and City have also moved to strengthen their defence by signing Portugal international centre-back Ruben Dias from Benfica for around £65m.

'GOOD ARGUMENTS': Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa, left, and Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder before last weekend's Yorkshire derby, after which the pair initially agreed to differ. Photo by OLI SCARFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.'GOOD ARGUMENTS': Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa, left, and Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder before last weekend's Yorkshire derby, after which the pair initially agreed to differ. Photo by OLI SCARFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.
'GOOD ARGUMENTS': Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa, left, and Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder before last weekend's Yorkshire derby, after which the pair initially agreed to differ. Photo by OLI SCARFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.

In a shorter than usual season, it has left Bielsa unsure as to how City compare to last year - not that it is something the Whites head coach wants to openly discuss.

Bielsa also says that opinions on other sides need managing with caution with the Whites head coach insisting that on reflection Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder was ultimately correct to disagree with his own initial viewpoint that Leeds were fair winners of last weekend's Yorkshire derby at Bramall Lane.

"I never find it very comfortable to talk about an opponent’s weaknesses," said Bielsa, asked if he had seen any weaknesses in Manchester City this season that weren't necessarily there before.

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"The season is very short and it’s very hard to make conclusions as to whether they are weaker than before.

"But to talk about an opponent’s weakness in public is never a comfortable thing."

Bielsa added: "After the last game I thought that the victory would have been a fair one.

"But the opposition manager Chris Wilder thought that what I thought was a fair victory, was in fact not.

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"I then listened to the arguments that he gave and I looked over what happened in the game and I understood, that justifiably, he could have the opinion that he did because they had very clear scoring opportunities.

"This makes me think the opinions that we have when the opponent is involved, we need to manage with caution.

"I would never have said victory was fair had I taken into consideration the arguments of the manager of Sheffield United.

"The arguments were good."

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Thank you Laura Collins

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