LEADER BIELSA GETS HIS POINT ACROSS
FOCUS ON THE LEEDS UNITED BOSS
IT’S fair to say Marcelo Bielsa has made quite an impact on English football this season, though not always for the right reasons.
For while his Leeds side have been in and around the top of the Championship virtually all season, Spygate – the attempts to covertly watch their opponents training – has generated headlines galore.
It all adds to the Bielsa legend. I lived in Chile for a few years just after the Argentinian’s reign as national coach. He took La Roja to the World Cup in South Africa, put their football back on the map and became a massive favourite.
I was always bemused at how popular he was even after he’d left. There was an obsession in the media with how he was getting on in Europe with the likes of Athletic Bilbao and Marseille. Any story involving him, however obscure, seemed to make the television news and the newpapers.
You could understand my interest then when he was appointed Leeds manager last summer. And ‘El Loco’ (the Crazy One), to no great surprise, got off to a flyer as his renowned high-energy pressing style proved too much for a number of rivals.
However, there have been signs that Leeds have started to wane of late. They are having to dig deep to grind out results, injuries to key players – like top scorer Kemar Roofe – have hit hard and their form has been patchy.
Their 1-0 loss at QPR on Tuesday night – when they could have gone back top of the table – was another setback.
Leeds had plenty of pressure and possession, especially in the first half, but came up against dogged opponents and failed to find a cutting edge.
Spanish midfielder Pablo Hernandez prodded and probed, but lone striker Patrick Bamford looked out of sorts (though he did score twice in the thumping 4-0 win against West Brom on Friday night). Ultimately, Luke Freeman’s early second half goal proved decisive and more than 3,000 Leeds fans went home unhappy.
One of the most interesting things to observe afterwards was Bielsa’s reaction. A scrum of reporters gathered round him for an unusual press conference by the dugouts.
Unusual in the fact that an interpreter’s involved. It makes for a slightly convoluted process as a reporter asks a question, the interpreter translates it into Spanish, Bielsa replies in his native tongue and then the interpreter has to switch the answer back into English.
Understand
My Spanish isn’t great, but I could understand a lot of what Bielsa was saying. Dressed in his Leeds tracksuit and with his head slightly bowed most of the time, he was forthright with his answers, if he deemed the question worthy.
It was a bit different than your normal manager’s post-match press conference – more intense, concentrated. And that was just the reporters…
Perhaps if Leeds had drawn or won, the 63-year former Argentina boss would have been in a more upbeat mood.
I understood where he was coming from with his answer to the standard opening question to a losing manager – where did it go wrong?
He pointed to the facial injury to skipper Liam Cooper towards the end of the first half, which required him to go off for treatment, as a turning point when his team were dominating, and talked about how QPR started both halves brightly.
But his hackles seemed to rise with the next question – had Bielsa thought about bringing Izzy Brown, who came on with ten minutes left,
off the bench earlier?
“No, no way,” he replied. “In this kind of game it was hard for Izzy Brown to play well. With short spaces, he couldn’t combine, use the association play. No, no, I believe the minutes he did play showed clearly that it didn’t suit his characteristics.
“Of course, I’m not saying he’s responsible for it but I’m surprised that you’re asking me this question because Pablo Hernandez and Tyler Roberts were leading the team after the first minutes of the second half.
“I believe the introduction of Izzy Brown was an extreme decision to try to change the result but I don’t think I should have put him in before.
Characteristics
“If you have a look at the game, the player that took us closest to the goal was Tyler Roberts and he has different characteristics than Izzy Brown.” Then a reporter asked how frustrating it was that Leeds hadn’t won bearing in mind they could have gone top and QPR were on a bad run. “The answer is included in your question,” replied Bielsa through the translator. Pressed again on the same issue, Bielsa replied: “As the answer is included in your question, I can’t say anything else. “The answer is in the question because you know the result is frustrating.” Then someone asked if he was worried that his team was losing energy at a crucial stage of the season. He chuckled as if he understood but then asked the translator what had been said.
It made you wonder how much English he can understand.
“It’s a question without any basis,” he said. “If you watched the game you would see this team has much energy. You are telling me the team has lost energy?
“What our team has shown in every game is that we have an excess of energy. Clearly you don’t know what you’re talking about because if there is something this team doesn’t lack it’s energy.
“There is a lot of data to show that, it’s not an opinion.” Ouch.
A few minutes later, after a relieved QPR boss Steve McClaren had given a more light-hearted press conference, I headed off.
Down the touchline, take a right and you’re back in the bowels of Loftus Road. As I was walking towards the exit, I saw someone sitting on his own on a step at the end of a passageway.
It was Bielsa looking straight ahead. I couldn’t tell if he was watching what was going on down the corridor or immersed in a world of his own.
The seconds ticked on and eventually one of Bielsa’s colleagues approached him and told him it was time to go. They walked out of the exit and on to the coach.
There was, no doubt, plenty of time for Bielsa, who is approaching 30 years as a manager, to ponder his next moves on the journey north. Friday night’s 4-0 thumping of West Brom suggested he found the answers he was looking for.
The intense pursuit of perfection continues...