OPINION
It is a measure of the impact that Marcelo Bielsa has made that Leeds United fans regard their League Cup clash against Bolton Wanderers tonight as a mouthwatering occasion even though the manager has already made clear he will make wholesale changes.
The Argentine explained at his media conference on Monday that youngsters Jamal Blackman, Jamie Shackleton, Tom Pearce, Lewis Baker, Tyler Roberts and Jack Harrison will join Pontus Jansson and Patrick Bamford in the starting XI as he shuffles his pack.
The Elland Road encounter is set to generate a far bigger crowd than would normally be expected for two Championship sides fielding their reserves.
But so remarkable has been the transformation of the team since Bielsa took charge that Leeds supporters can’t wait to see how the rising stars, supplemented by a few senior men, can perform.
United can blow Bolton away if the fringe players can match the first choices in following the manager’s instructions to the letter and overwhelming a second-tier rival.
Even a side featuring the expected 11 changes are capable of playing on the front foot against the visitors and denying them any opportunity to play in trademark Bielsa style.
Pearce and Jansson should be joined in defence by fit-again Connor Shaughnessy and rarely-seen Vurnon Anita, the 29-year-old Holland international whose place on the fringes has continued under the new regime.
In central midfield, Shackleton and Baker get their chances and they will lay the platform for a youthful front four spearheaded by £7million new signing Patrick Bamford.
Roberts and Harrison are set for their Leeds debuts and they should be joined by speed machine Jack Clarke, the gifted 17-year-old who has been terrorising defenders for the Under-23s.