'Bielsa Has Already Achieved God-Like Status At Leeds'
- Leicester return to Premier League action on Monday, facing Leeds United at Elland Road (8pm kick-off)
- City are looking for a second successive league victory after beating Arsenal last time out
- The hosts also come into the game off the back of a win, defeating Aston Villa 3-0 at Villa Park
- Digital Sports Writer Beren Cross says Leeds have shown that they are more than capable of holding their own in the top flight
Cross, Digital Sports Writer at Leeds Live, believes the Premier League have quickly become aware that any game against the Whites will be a difficult task, as the previously unbeaten Aston Villa found out last week.
Following positive performances against Liverpool and Manchester City, which showed Marcelo Bielsa's side could go toe-to-toe with the best in the division, Leicester will have to be on their game to take something from Elland Road on Monday (8pm kick-off).
"It has been an incredible start and I think the thing that pays testament to that is pretty much everyone I talk to now, if they're a neutral, Leeds are their second team," Cross told LCFC TV.
"They have just impressed so many people with the way they play, it's very, very carefree. They obviously attack at will, taking so many shots in the box at teams, regardless of who they are playing.
"The standout games of course have been the season opener against Liverpool, arguably the best team in Europe and Leeds were one silly penalty away from drawing at Anfield.
"To score three goals there and still only just lose 4-3 was a really encouraging start and then the draw with City, who they arguably outplayed for the middle third of that game at Elland Road. Although it was only one point from six, I think the manner of those games showed people exactly what they were going to get with Bielsa's Leeds."
Cross heaped praise on the manager, who became the first coach to guide Leeds back to the Premier League after an absence of 16 years, using largely the same squad that had struggled in the second tier for the last few seasons.
He continued: "We've obviously followed him in the Championship for the past two years and seen what he's capable of and the sort of football that's he's delivered. It's such a relief to see that it's carried over into the Premier League because we know how entertaining it can be and how much he puts into the team.
"People are going to give him the credit he deserves with the work that he puts in. Aside from turning up and looking good, points are the most important thing and they are now winning as well as playing well, as the result at Villa showed last week.
"It's astonishing, he is a deity, he is god-like. Those of us that have followed Leeds before Bielsa, knew them as a mid-table Championship side, when Paul Heckingbottom left in the summer of 2018. Bielsa has made very few changes round the edges to that squad and look at them now. He went very close in the play-offs in his very first season.
"In the end they romped the league last year with a 10-point difference and now they are in the top six in the early stages of the season. What he has done to that group of players is nothing short of miraculous.
"Many managers in the modern game will say they need money to succeed, they need to buy the right players, they can't be expected to get results without the players that they want. Yet Bielsa just throws that out of the window, through sheer hard work and care for his players, it's remarkable what he's done."
Far from just his coaching abilities and attacking style of play, Bielsa has also received widespread acclaim for his off the pitch gestures, as Cross revealed.
"It's the fact he's just a great human being as well," he said. "It's very easy when the team is performing well to be positive about the manager, but even if they were struggling on the pitch, off the pitch, it's the way he carries himself.
"The little titbits you hear from him, the letters he writes to fans, the fact you can just see him walking around Yorkshire countryside - he walks to and from his little flat to training.
"It's just any number of gestures he does and when you read his press conferences, when he's in the mood and goes into deep, long answers, his values and his moral compass are just incredible. He's a model citizen."
Midfielder Kalvin Phillips, who received his first senior England call-up earlier this year, will be a big loss for Leeds as he continues to be ruled out through injury, though Cross expects Pascal Struijk to be an able replacement in front of the back four.
"Inevitably you're going to miss someone of Phillips' quality, regardless of what's going on with the rest of the squad and if you've got a suitable alternative for someone in your starting 11," Cross added.
"Thankfully the Villa result shows that we can certainly play very well without Phillips. Of all the players they've got in the squad, he is certainly the hardest to replace. There's few players in the squad that can do what he does. Pascal Struijk will almost certainly play in that position as the central defensive midfielder, he is probably the nearest alternative to Phillips.
"In training, the players say he is remarkable. He's got the best passing range in the entire squad and that's saying something, so there is a lot of encouragement to take from last Friday."
Bielsa traditionally likes to keep his squad down to a small number, something which has been carried into the Premier League, giving youngsters the chance to shine. However, Cross does not believe it has had a negative impact on the options and quality he has available.
"In terms of the squad size, it's been that way since the start," He explained. "We're quite used to it now, Bielsa has always gone with a small squad, I think it's about squad morale, the dressing room atmosphere.
"He doesn't want to have a bloated squad of 23, 24, 25 players and on a good day, if you've got a fully fit squad, that's seven people missing out on the matchday squad, let alone the starting 11.
"So a lot of us will always have that slight reluctance to really get on board with it because you're very rarely going to have a fully fit squad, therefore you do need to have more than 18 players to then fill in on the bench when injuries hit.
"He's got an immense amount of faith in the youth setup here, so he's very happy to call upon the Under-23s for places on the bench, they're not afraid to use them and so far there's been no huge injury list.
"It's always been that one player will recover and then another person gets injured. It's not decimated the squad just yet and I think the big proof of that is that the bench has looked quite strong in most games.
"That's normally the sign of a good team when the bench is strong and on Friday there were a lot of good options, so I think we're used to it, but it's an easy stick to beat Bielsa with, the smaller squad."
All times GMT.