Stoke City manager Nathan Jones has spoken about Leeds United and their manager Marcelo Bielsa, ahead of the two sides' meeting at the Bet365 Stadium this weekend.

The 45-year-old will be looking to secure his first win as Potters manager, after a bitterly disappointing first week at the helm for the Welshman - the Potters fell to a 3-1 away defeat at Brentford in his first game in charge, then threw away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 at home to League One side Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup in midweek.

The former Luton Town manager will undoubtedly be looking to gain an invaluable three points for the club as they look to reignite their play-off push this weekend, but understands that it will be a "difficult" game against the league leaders.

"It is a difficult game against the league leaders -Leeds are a big club, so it is a big game anyway, but with everything surrounding it, it is a massive game.

"It is about what we do though - we want people to be talking about us at the end of it, for the right reasons."

The Whites still continue to lead the way in the Sky Bet Championship table after an impressive 2-0 home win against Frank Lampard's Derby County last Friday night, a game in which Marcelo Bielsa and his staff came under scrutiny for "spying" on the Rams before the game.

But Jones has insisted that the Argentine's decision to analyse the opposition much more in-depth is not "revolutionary", whilst also claiming that the 63-year old is a "thorough" manager.

"Marcelo Bielsa has actually been very complimentary to me, so I don't want to take any high ground in reaction to it - he is a thorough manager, he isn't revolutionary, we do exactly the same here."

Stoke go into the fixture on the back of three defeats in their last four league games, and have slumped to 15th position in the league standings, a staggering eight points off the play-off positions. Leeds, on the other hand, sit four points clear at the top of the table, having won eight out of their last 10 Championship outings.

The Verdict

It's a fair comment from Jones, who will obviously be hurting from two defeats in his first two games.

Stoke could be a potential banana skin for Leeds as the Potters will be looking to get back to winning ways.

However, Leeds have been impressive away from home this season, and it's going to be another tough test for Jones.