Marcelo Bielsa reacts to Charlie Cresswell display in Leeds win

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Marcelo Bielsa has shared his initial thoughts on Charlie Cresswell after the defender made his second Leeds United appearance in their Carabao Cup win at Fulham – in comments reported by Leeds Live.

The Whites are through to the fourth round after a hard-fought victory at Craven Cottage. Ultimately, penalties decided the contest.

There were a number of encouraging performances from Leeds’ depleted squad. But perhaps few impressed quite as much as Cresswell.

The 19-year-old came in alongside Kalvin Phillips at centre-back. And he went on to produce a display that left the supporters lauding the teenager on social media.

As shown by Whoscored, he completed 87 passes. To put that into context, Phillips was the most prolific passer, finding a teammate 63 times.

Meanwhile, he won 11 aerial duels. Once again, he was well clear of anyone else on either side at the end of the game.

And Bielsa went on to suggest that he was content with what he saw from Cresswell.

“Made few errors,” he said, as reported by Leeds Live. “Good distribution. Difficult at the back for all of our players to get the ball from defence to attack.”

Have Leeds uncovered another gem as Bielsa praises Cresswell?

Cresswell seems to have been knocking on the door for some time. However, Leeds boast a strong group of centre-back options.

He has been a stalwart for the under-23s. But obviously, the step up to the first-team is significant.

Fulham are in the Championship. But Marco Silva’s side are flying high so far. And they would cause a lot of Premier League sides problems.

So Cresswell proved a real point with his display. And it should now come as no surprise if he keeps his place for Saturday’s clash with West Ham.