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Marcelo Bielsa has been presented with a nightmare scenario ahead of his team’s playoff semi-final clash with Derby.

The Argentine’s favoured centre-back pairing of Liam Cooper and Pontus Jansson may well be disrupted as the Swede has been ruled a doubt for the first leg.

Bielsa’s options

When injuries or suspensions have left Bielsa without either Cooper or Jansson we have seen him employ a couple of different tactics.

Kalvin Phillips has often dropped back to centre-half, whilst versatile defender Gaetano Berardi has stepped in on other occasions.

If Jansson is indeed absent the Whites must line up with the latter playing in defence this weekend due to the nature of the match away at Pride Park.

Leeds will be under a lot more pressure away from home. Therefore they have to line up in the more defensive style that we have seen in recent weeks.

A pivot of Phillips and Forshaw has been the 63-year-old’s favoured pairing in midfield as of late and that shouldn’t change ahead of this game.

Phillips too valuable

If Jansson is going to be unavailable for the first-leg against Derby, they must go with Berardi as a centre-back rather than Phillips.

Not that the Englishman wouldn’t do a fantastic job in the backline, but the Whites can’t afford to lose out on the destructive work he does in the midfield.

With Derby operating with a system that utilised multiple attacking midfielders, whoever is playing the defensive midfield role for the away team on Saturday will have their hands full.

Phillips may be one of the only players in the league who can competently deal with the threat that the Rams’ creative players possess and therefore he mustn’t be moved from his natural position.

This is a problem Bielsa has faced before. When Frank Lampard’s side travelled to Elland Road in August Leeds were without Jansson, Berardi stepped in and the Yorkshire club ran out 4-1 winners.

The Swiss defender did a great job of keeping Martyn Waghorn quiet that day, and if he can repeat that trick it will go a long way towards helping his team get to Wembley.