Former Liverpool and Aston Villa midfielder Ray Houghton has delivered his verdict on Leeds and their push for promotion this season.
Talking on BBC Radio Leeds on Friday night (Noel Whelan Show, Fri, 6pm), he said that the one thing he keeps hearing about is fitness and how the players are going to bear up in the second-half of the season.
However, he thinks that in Bielsa they have a leader who can take them back to the promised land of the Premier League.
“There will be two teams edging away, last season it was Wolves and Cardiff, and Leeds are like that this season,” Houghton said.
“The one thing, the recurring thing I keep hearing is the fitness – how fit are they going to be in the second-half of the season? The training demands put on them by the manager, the pressing game they’re playing, the potential players that might need to come in and strengthen the squad.
“Kalvin Phillips played at centre-back against Bolton and he’s normally a holding midfielder and he’s very good in that position. You’ve got the perfect opportunity in January to bring in strength because the last 23 games are going to be very tough, lots of games in quick succession and you need the squad to deal with that.
“But Bielsa is leading from the front, the players have brought into what he wants, the crowds they’re getting, there’s an air about the place that this could be the season to final get back to where they should be, in the Premier League.”
OPINION
This is what everyone was talking about at the start of the season and it’s still the main topic of conversation among pundits watching Leeds with interest. It’s a case of so far, so good though for Bielsa and his Leeds team. It’s almost Christmas and they’re top of the league but they’ve got four fixtures in the space of eight days and those games could have a huge impact on their push for automatic promotion. There’s one very significant stat in Leeds’ favour. In the past ten years, every single team that’s been top of the Championship on Christmas Day has gone on to finish in the top two. That makes it feel pretty real but Leeds fans won’t want to get too excited before the end of the season. The game on Sunday is massive. A newly resurgent Aston Villa, helped by new manager Dean Smith, have got themselves back into contention for the play-offs and they’ll want to stamp their authority on the game. A win for Leeds wouldn’t be a shock though and would make them overwhelming favourites to win automatic promotion.