High-octane style last at Leeds – is it having same effect
WHEN searching for reasons why Newcastle have dramatically fallen from last season’s astonishing heights there are those who would make an inevitable comparison with Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United.
Having enjoyed a sensational first season back in the Premier League, Leeds hit a brick wall second time around, unable to maintain the relentless physical challenge required of a high-pressing team faced with the quality of the top division and results collapsed.
Some coaches I have talked to have privately suggested that is being mirrored by Newcastle this campaign given their initial success was forged on the back of supreme fitness and non-stop harrying of opponents.
Bielsa’s successor at Leeds, Jesse Marsch, stated he inherited an injury crisis as a consequence of huge effort and that has certainly bitten deeply into Newcastle’s role model this campaign.
The tactical match-up is not rigidly the same in terms of style and execution, but maybe the outcome at the two Uniteds is startlingly similar.
While Bielsa has as many layers as an onion, when peeled down to basics his general style of play proved to be unsustainable at the highest level.
Leeds burst upon the Premier League scene like a breath of fresh air in 2020 after a 16-year absence, startling and overcoming traditional sides with their refreshing,
exciting approach, but in their second season they fell away badly.
The club’s first year back produced a top-half finish, their points tally being the most by a newly promoted side since Ipswich Town two decades earlier.
However, next time around it was a tough ride and following a series of poor results Bielsa, the architect of their uprising, was dismissed in February 2022 as they leaked goals in spades.
Bielsa had always demanded his teams press high, and to apply a
press that encourages them to regain possession, instead of one that attempts to delay opponents via more routine pressure.
Though it often succeeded it also demanded particularly impressive conditioning which, over the course of a season, often eventually proved difficult for his teams to maintain.
That was the case at Leeds, as it had been at Atletico Madrid.
Significantly, upon arrival Marsch poured petrol on the fire by insisting that the Whites paid a high price for the intensity of the old regime.
“I could see from just watching games from afar, and talking to people within the club, that the stress levels were incredibly high,” he said shortly after his appointment.
“You could see it in their faces. You could see in the 15th minute that some of them were already at their maximum and that shouldn’t be the case. We had an injury issue which for me had a lot to do with the training methodology.
“These players were over-trained and it led to them being physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically in a difficult place to recover from week to week, game to game.”
It must be pointed out that Marsch was never able to match Bielsa’s achievements or reach his standing with the fans and he himself was dismissed, but were his points still valid?
Certainly Newcastle were supremely fit and energetic last season in achieving Champions League qualification against all odds.
Eddie Howe slowly introduced newcomers like Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak – two wonderful technicians – not only so they could witness United’s style of play
but also top up their fitness to the levels he demanded. However, the difference was highlighted best by Anthony Gordon, who admitted he struggled in the second half of last season for the fitness required to make an impact but, having worked relentlessly to overcome his problems, has been a standout performer this term.
Young Lewis Hall has similarly failed to match the physical demands made upon players at Newcastle, as well as displaying a tactical naivety, and has consequently disappeared down the plug hole in terms of starts.
The form of others has dramatically fallen off, though it can be argued that players like Sven Botman and Sean Longstaff were forced back quickly from injury because of a lack of numbers and were unable to produce their previous high intensity.
It is an interesting theory that Howe’s United may be generally suffering like Bielsa’s Leeds did.
There has to be a reason for the downturn in performances and the truth is that there are probably many, but there is no question that the physical and mental demands on players to maintain such a highoctane approach is considerable. It must be done by all 11 simultaneously, of course, or it cannot work. If one or two fail to press because of a lack of ‘legs’ then the whole system collapses.
In the second half of this season United have looked alarmingly off the pace at times, placid if not timid, and teams have driven a cart and horses through their flimsy midfield and defence. They have appeared brittle physically and mentally.
That something is wrong, either be it in training or in the medical room, is a conclusion difficult to avoid for those unable to witness the inside workings because otherwise it is down to damned bad luck, and will Geordies buy that week upon week, injury upon injury?
Bielsa, hailed as a genius by so many top coaches, either could not or would not tinker with his playing style, preferring at club level to move on to new pastures after a short while and start again.
Can Eddie prove to be more bending and miraculously come up with a solution to his problems, however he sees them? I hope so, I genuinely do, for his sake and ours.
Some coaches I have talked to have privately suggested that is being mirrored by Newcastle this campaign