'It is not a simple injury' - every word from Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa's pre-Leicester City press conference

“I have been evaluating them game by game because all of the performances haven’t been the same. There were games that were won, lost and drawn that generate the same points but with different qualities. The amount of points that we have, where it positions us in the table where we are right now, is not what we wanted to get.”

“That is our objective and that is what we hope and more than predict it, I think we need to show it.”

“From my point of view, he is one of the referential coaches in this league due to what he has constructed within his team. He has managed to have all of his individualities shine, he doesn’t have one tactical formation that is referential, not because he changes them constantly because that is what happens, but he changes them with sense and all of the different formations are very well formed, very well articulated and very well oiled and every year that goes past they have better individualities than they did the previous year, not only due to their signings but also due to their development and how they have maintained their players.”

“He is healthy, he has been training and the performance of a player is based on whether he is healthy to be able to play. Technically and physically he can assimilate the competition and then you have to confirm this data in consecutive games. Forshaw is healthy, he has been training and now he has to assimilate a succession of games.”

“He is performing well. He is in the second division of Spain which is an important level and normally his performances there and with the under 21s of Poland, they have him in good form. We analyse game to game and at the adequate moment the evaluations will be made and the adequate decision will be made.”

“We need more data than we already posses to make an affirmation that is definitive. What I can say is that in the minutes that he did play, he was able to adapt to the competition, to the level that he played at.”

“As I have been working for such a long time with the same group of players, the difficulty that you make reference to, that does exist but it is not impossible to solve for us.”

“If you also look at the data you will also notice that Bamford has also gone times without scoring when he he has been in the starting XI for Leeds. To have a goalscorer is always very important, the fact that Patrick scored a goal every two games last season is impossible to ignore and we prepare ourselves to be able to solve the absence of any player.”

“The offensive game of a team has automisations but fundamentally it is linked to the characteristics of the players. The differences that there are between Rodrigo and Bamford exist, but they don’t represent difficulties to play with the other players in attack, whether one of them plays or both of them play. When both of them play you have two wingers and a mixed midfielder to attack and when one of the two plays, Rodrigo can play behind with a centre forward in front of him or in front of a no 10 and Bamford usually plays with a no 10 behind. In any case, the articulations, the links between the players, they are quite simple to concrete because it is based on their virtues and they are not difficult to be mixed.”

Bamford, Ayling and Koch are all still out. Bielsa will know more about Shackleton and Firpo this weekend.