‘Bielsa is so strict. It is like being in the army’
Mateusz Klich tells Luke Edwards how the revered Leeds manager has inspired a revolution
Mateusz Klich has never played for anyone like Marcelo Bielsa before and still has no idea whether the style of football the Leeds United manager has championed throughout his career can work over the course of a long Championship campaign, but what he does know is that it is going to be fun finding out.
Bielsa’s appointment by Leeds in the summer was the club’s latest attempt to plot a pathway back to the Premier League, 14 years after they tumbled out of the top flight.
It is a high-risk, high-reward strategy, offering control to a man who has no experience in English football and who has not replicated the success he had in Argentina, Chile and Spain at Marseille, Lazio and Lille.
But Bielsa is not just another foreign manager trying his luck in England. The 63-year-old was at the vanguard of a tactical revolution, with the launch of high-press football, a style mimicked, tweaked and altered since by some of the game’s brightest young coaches.
His methods and ideas arrived in this country long before he did, imported by disciples such as Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp. At Leeds, it is Bielsa’s chance to show what can be achieved with the right blend of fitness, teamwork and, perhaps most importantly of all, trust.
“I didn’t know much about him as a person,” said Klich, a midfielder who has been one of the main beneficiaries of the new regime at Elland Road, having spent most of his first season as a Leeds player on loan at Utrecht in the Netherlands.
“I knew he was highly respected and that he had achieved some big things, but I didn’t actually know how he worked, what his training sessions would be like. It was a shock, very different. We don’t play games, it is tactics, tactics, tactics and fitness. Pre-season was so hard, so much running, so much work in the gym and then tactical shape every afternoon.
“We were exhausted. I was so tired. Yeah, some of the lads, they grumbled, it happens, but we respected him and we quickly understood what he was trying to do. Maybe we were worried it would not work in English football, in the Championship especially, because you play, on average, every three days, but I think it can work anywhere.
“It’s a really nice way of playing, the fans love it because we are always on the front foot. We defend high and we worry about what is happening in front of us. I don’t think we knew how good we could be. That changed against Stoke on the opening day. They had just come down from the Premier League and we played so well to beat them. That’s the moment I think we realised this could work in English football.”
Klich played only a handful of games for Leeds last season, forced out on loan as his first manager, Thomas Christiansen, did not think he was strong enough after a move from FC Twente. Bielsa thought differently and the 28-year-old has been so good, he was recalled to the Poland squad this month after a four-year absence. “When I first met him, I asked, what do I need to do to be a better player,” Klich said.
‘Players sometimes forget to listen but with a manager like this, you would be stupid not to’
“I listened and tried to make sure I did as he wanted. Footballers sometimes forget to listen, but with a manager like this, you would be stupid not to.”
Leeds have been here before too often to be convinced things will be different this time and last weekend’s defeat by Birmingham City was a reality check after an unbeaten start.
But if they are going to win promotion, the faith in Bielsa’s methods must be unwavering. “He is very strict, it is like being in the military,” Klich said. “We go to the gym every day before training, then we go out on the pitch. Every meal is together as a team.
“There is no time to relax. It is harder than I have ever worked. All the players believe he can make us better, that we need to listen.
“Can we do it for the whole season? Hopefully, but there are 46 games in the Championship and it is one of the toughest leagues in Europe. We know it will be hard, but it’s a really nice style of football to play and as long we maintain the same intensity we have showed so far, we can get promoted. Leeds are a club that should definitely be in the Premier League.”