Amid all the understandable uproar of the European Super League, Leeds United host one of the competition’s ‘founding fathers’ in Liverpool at Elland Road on Monday night.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side head into the contest off the back of a truly historic 2-1 victory away at runaway leaders Manchester City last weekend, and will surely be in confident mood of pulling off yet another stunning result.
However, the Leeds boss appears to have been handed a major blow ahead of the clash against Jurgen Klopp’s side, with news that Rodrigo is likely to miss out once again.
The Athletic’s Phil Hay revealed that the club’s summer signing is “still recovering from a muscular problem”, and now via a pre-match Q&A, has relayed that “from what Bielsa said last week, it sounded as if Rodrigo would be missing again.”
News of the £18m-rated star being missing for the visit of Liverpool will surely have Bielsa gutted, with the Spaniard really struggling to justify his worth since arriving in a big-money deal from Valencia last summer.
Dubbed as “extraordinary” by former Barcelona boss Quique Setien, Rodrigo just hasn’t been able to find his feet at Elland Road, and while he was quick to dismiss speculation that he wanted a move back to Spain after failing to settle in England, it’s still be a rather disappointing debut campaign for the forward.
He’s managed just three goals in 21 Premier League games this season, and has been hit by injuries over the past few weeks. After initially recovering from a groin strain that kept him out of six consecutive top-flight matches, Rodrigo has since missed two out of the last three games for Leeds.
A game against the Premier League champions is a tall order at any time, but being without one of his key summer acquisitions is a body blow for Bielsa.
While the Whites coped superbly without him last week against Manchester City, the Leeds boss will no doubt be gutted that he will be without Rodrigo once again when they host Liverpool tonight.
Meanwhile, Leeds must start this “under-rated” gem today vs Liverpool…
