BIELSA’S RUSSIAN ROULETTE

Leeds boss plays a dangerous game – but he’s so good at it

SINCE that breathless opening-day cavalry charge at Anfield, the Premier League has known what to expect from Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United

The problem, of course, is actually doing anything about it.

Bielsa’s high-intensity, highoctane brand of attacking football creates pulsating matches and draws opponents into a Russian roulette shoot-out.

Leeds want games to be open, they want opponents to slug it out with them.

Everton fell into that trap at Goodison on a Merseyside evening that provided echoes of the past, not just in the mist that swirled around the famous old stadium, but also in the attacking verve that could have been a throwback back to the ‘ 60s.

It could easily have e been a scoreline from back then too, or a repeat of Leeds’s last visit to Merseyside when they lost 4-3 at Liverpool.

Yet if there were positives ves to be taken from Everton’s t ’s eight shots on target, and five big chances, there was frustration too. It was an anger expressed perfectly by Mason Holgate, captaining the Blues for the very first time.

He said: “We know the kind of game they wanted to play – man-to-man, intensive, back and forth. So we knew we should play a different way, but we didn’t do that. It felt like we got involved in a game of you attack, we attack.

“As soon as we got the ball, we felt we had to go forward as fast as we could. That led to it being back and forth, back and forth. When it’s like that, it makes it into a 50-50 game... and they got the goal in the end. There are lots of things we could have done differently –

but the th main one was not pushing things as much as we did.”

Had Everton been a little more clinical, they could have snatched victory because Abdoulaye Doucoure, Richarlison twice, Allan and Holgate all saw goalbound shots brilliantly saved by visiting goalkeeper Illan Meslier.

But Jordan Pickford in the home goal was even busier, producing a breathtaking string of saves, including an incredible double stop from Raphinha and Jack Harrison that defied belief.

But he could not keep out the Brazilian’s low searing effort in the 79th minute (above).

Leeds dominated the latter part of the game, the plan hatched by Bielsa (above) working to perfection.

It was a fact acknowledged by Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti, whose frustration was evident. “Leeds are a dynamic team, we knew this,” he said.

“They have a clear idea of football, they create a lot of problems for the team they play against. We could have been more clinical. That was the difference.

“Everyone has to give more sacrifice, show more character, and make a difference.”