FOREST GIVEN KIS OF LIFE
JACK HARRISON claims working under Pep Guardiola’s pal Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds will help him break through at Manchester City.
Harrison is on loan at Leeds United for the season and has yet to play a competitive game for champions City since joining them from their sister club New York City in January.
Guardiola’s philosophy is based on Bielsa’s style and Harrison feels it is ideal for him to play under the legendary Argentinian coach at Elland Road.
“If you watch both City and Leeds play, then you can see it’s beneficial for me to stay on this pathway,” said the winger.
“The style we want to play here at Leeds fits me very well.
“It’s a good place to be in terms of my football education. Pep and his staff are fantastic people to be around and when I was with City before coming to Leeds, it was all about the technical stuff.
“But I have learned a lot already from Bielsa (right), especially in terms of movement off the ball.
“He pays a lot of attention to that part of the game.
“It’s good for me, but I know I still need to improve more.
“I’m working hard and I feel I’m learning more about the Championship and English football each week.”
Harrison, 21, believes Bielsa’s table-toppers can win promotion ahead of this evening’s home clash with Nottingham Forest.
“We’re back up at No.1 in the table and we’ve got a good chance of staying top,” he said.
“We need not to be complacent because, if you look at the last few weeks, anything can happen in this league.”
Bielsa is determined to keep his players grounded and he insists being top is only important at the end of the season.
“Of course, it’s important to be first, but it’s a misleading position at this stage,” said the Leeds boss.
“The leader is the team that has more points, but it doesn’t mean you’re the best team.
“The best team is the one that has the most points at the end of the season – we have only played 30 per cent of the Championship.” AITOR KARANKA insists a rare visit by Nottingham Forest’s owner Evangelos Marinakis has been a help not a hindrance.
Greek shipping tycoon Marinakis is demanding promotion this term after splashing out more than £25million on 16 new players this summer.
But Forest are still outside of the play-off spots ahead of tonight’s trip to leaders Leeds.
That prompted
Marinakis to fly from Athens to address the squad before Wednesday’s 3-0 win at Bolton. He has made 12 changes of coach in eight years of owning Olympiacos.
But Reds boss Karanka (above) said: “He was really supportive and I think it was especially important for the players, rather than me because I had met him a few times.
“Especially when you are hearing that the owner is supportive, it is nice for everybody to see him and hear his words, and to know that we are all together.
“We have an opportunity to do something nice at this club and they were his words. The message is the same from everybody – just to keep going.”