LIVE: Leeds United 3 Burnley 1

The Argentinian's group has been ravaged with absentees this term, with the numbers of side-lined senior squad members entering double figures through injury, suspension and coronavirus.

A small Covid outbreak in LS11 before Christmas saw matches against Liverpool and Aston Villa postponed over the festive period, meaning United haven't played in 15 days, since a heavy 4-1 defeat at home to Arsenal.

"The reality that we’re facing is not only ours," Bielsa said during his pre-match press conference.

"I can’t say that a healthy player is in ideal conditions to compete, because when you haven’t competed for one month or three weeks, you need a period to reach that height, but that’s a reality, and the teams that we’re coming up against have similar problems."

Burnley have suffered similar struggles. Games against Watford, Aston Villa and Everton fell by the wayside due to the pandemic, while the fixture against Spurs at Turf Moor was also postponed late on because of weather/safety issues.

Sean Dyche has also been without leading scorer Maxwel Cornet, who limped off in the defeat against Newcastle United with a thigh strain while Ashley Barnes and Connor Roberts have also been unavailable.

Meanwhile, the squad was hit by Covid in the lead up to the meeting with Manchester United at Old Trafford as Nick Pope, Jay Rodriguez, Josh Brownhill and Kevin Long fell victim.

"The competition always compares the reality of two teams, so our problems [are ones] our opponents also have - that’s to say that the proportion is maintained between the two teams are competing.

"It’s not that we have problems and our opponents don’t, or that our opponents have problems that we don’t. The proportions are more or less similar.

"We all have difficulties that lower the level of the competition, the proportions of comparison are the same."