Marcelo Bielsa will be hoping to see his Leeds United side bounce back from their first defeat of the season last Saturday, as they prepare to take on Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night.

The Whites’ form has somewhat dwindled in recent weeks, having won just once in four games since the turn of the international break, and suffered their first defeat of the season against Birmingham City on Saturday afternoon, losing 2-1.

Sheffield Wednesday, on the other hand, have had an upturn in their form in recent weeks having lost just once in their last six matches, and will be hopeful of another win as they host Leeds at Hillsborough in the clash of the weekend.

In what always proves to be a feisty Yorkshire derby whenever the two sides meet, the game could be won in midfield, and Wednesday will be relying on midfielder Joey Pelupessy to provide defensive steel to the Owls' midfield.

Pelupessy has formed an outstanding partnership in midfield with Barry Bannan and when the pair have started together, they have won 9 of their 18 Championship games over the last two seasons, only being defeated 4 times.

Pelupessy's role to sit back and protect the defence allows Bannan to push forward and supply the flair players with the ball, but the Dutchman has contributed to one assist this season and isn't afraid of pushing forward himself.

Going backwards, the 25-year old is more comfortable, however, putting in 1.9 average tackles per game, as well as achieving a statistic of 1.8 clearances per game too.

Whilst it may be Bannan's role to spray passes about, Pelupessy isn't afraid of making a pass or two either, averaging 39.1 passers per game with an impressive pass success of 85%, but the Owls will be relying on him cutting out Leeds' attacks on Friday night.

Pelupessy's midfield rival Kalvin Phillips has come on leaps and bounds under Marcelo Bielsa, meanwhile, and has been at the heart of all Leeds' success this term.

Bielsa tends to operate a 4-1-4-1 formation, with Phillips acting as the anchorman and almost like a quarterback, connecting the ball from defence to attack whilst sitting behind Alioski, Klich, Saiz and Hernandez.

It speaks volumes of how highly the 22-year-old is rated at Elland Road by Bielsa, having been given the pressure to hold the Leeds' defence all by himself, which he has done magnificently well this season.

Phillips has started every league game, and has provided two assists thus far this season, and is at the heart of every Leeds' attack making an average of 45.9 passes per game, 6.8 more than Pelupessy.

His pass success is only slightly lower than Pelupessy's, with a rate of 83.1%.

Defensively, Phillips is tremendously comfortable, making an average of 1 tackle per game whilst also amassing 3.2 average clearances a game.

The Verdict

This is set up to be a tremendous battle of midfield stalwarts on Friday night, and it'll be interesting to see whether Bielsa sticks with Phillips as a lone midfielder after Leeds' recent defeat to Birmingham.

Bielsa was critical of his own tactical mistakes, in which the pressure of Birmingham's midfield didn't allow Phillips to make as many key passes as he would have like to, leaving Leeds isolated up top.

Pelupessy will also have a tough job at hand, with the likes of Saiz and Klich pushing forward which could be a lot for the Dutchman to handle whilst Bannan pushes forward himself.