JOSE WINS BATTLE OF THE BRAINS
Mourinho’s counter-punching flattens high-wire Bielsa
THEY say the b best way to handle a bully i is with force. Alas, when the poet p of Leeds went toe to claw cla with the devil of Totten Tottenham, he left with the sort of wedgie wedgi that might require surgical extrac extraction. There are a great many nice n things to be said about the way Marcelo Marce Bielsa’s side play their games, and few fewer compliments for the style of Jose Mourinho, Mourin but this was a scoreline and performanc performance to stem some of the snootiness. That it went Mourinho’s w way was partially down to the vagaries of foo football, for Leeds had strong chances to go ahead, a but it was largely by design. The design of one manager who persists wi with a high-wire, attacking approach against top teams, and the design of another wh who likes nothing more than to sit back an and destroy the creations of his opposition. Bielsa sprinted on to a haymaker. And how Mourinho must have loved it. Of course he did. Ahead of the th game, he was depicted as something akin to Bielsa’s spiritual itual opposite, the minister minist of pragmatic anti-football anti- football up against the th great innovator tor whose legacy will not be measured in trophies. One can onl only imagine the satisfaction Mourinho fe felt as he boarded his raft of skulls to go home. Which is not to say i it was a fair fight between ideologies, ideo or that such a thing e exists in an uneven ven league. H How can it when Tottenham have an attacking ing duo for the ages? We are constantly r redefining how we assess Harry K Ka n e , an d e equally the brill brilliance of Son Heung-min a at his side. That Kane reached 10 league leag goals for the season with a penalty was less interesting, and less impressive, than his subsequent assist for Son’s strike that put Spurs two up. With two touches, Kane beat Pascal Struijk and from there it was a split-second fusion of perception and execution to bend a pass behind Luke Ayling and Ezgjan Alioski, flush into Son’s path. Delightful.
That assist was Kane’s 11th in the league this season and combined, he and Son have directly laid on 13 goals for one another this term — equalling a record set by Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton 26 years ago. For good measure, Son then got his fifth assist by crossing for Toby Alderweireld for 3-0.
The question is, where will it lead? What will those pretty numbers add up to? Whisper it, but Mourinho is getting ever closer to doing what he was hired to do.
Even with the Covid indiscretions committed by a chunk of his squad, Mourinho can reflect on a weekend in which Spurs ended a four-game winless streak in the Premier League, moved within four points of Liverpool and gained speed on the runway to tomorrow’s Carabao Cup semi-final against Brentford. Even the hard-liners who most resented the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino might be coming around.
‘All we focus on as players is winning,’ said Harry Winks. ‘The style of play is for other people to talk about. If you win, everybody is happy. If you play well and lose, everybody’s not happy. The most important thing is winning and if that means come the end of the season we are up there, then that’s all that matters for us.
‘We have a different manager now, with a different philosophy and style. Nothing has changed drastically but we have the mindset of wanting to win.’
The situation at Leeds is intriguing. Bielsa has thrown fistfuls of happy dust over the Premier League, but you have to question whether he has another idea hidden inside his blue bucket for the games against better sides.
At what stage does a 12-3 aggregate from games with Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea in the past month force a less aggressive approach?
Chances are, there won’t be a change any time soon. Bielsa was right to point out how Leeds created enough — 18 shots, no less — but with so much emphasis on bodies going forward and playing out from the back, the consequences of individual mistakes are greatly amplified. There were just too many by his side in this game, not least by their goalkeeper Illan Meslier, whose errant pass preceded the penalty. Bielsa got a little tetchy on the subject, so you would suspect Leeds will hold their course for now. TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris 6; Doherty 5, Alderweireld 7.5, Dier 7, Davies 7; Hojbjerg 7.5, Winks 7 (Sissoko 76min); Bergwijn 7, Ndombele 7 (Lucas 78), Son 8; KANE 8.5 (Vinicius 87). Subs not used: Hart, Reguilon, Rodon, Alli, Tanganga, Fernandes. Scorers: Kane 29, Son 43, Alderweireld 50. Booked: Winks, Hojbjerg, Doherty. Sent off: Doherty. Manager: Jose Mourinho 8. LEEDS (4-1-4-1): Meslier 5.5; Dallas 5.5, Ayling 5.5, Struijk 6, Alioski 5 (Shackleton 64, 6); Phillips 7; Raphinha 7, Klich 5.5, Rodrigo 6 (Hernandez 65, 6), Harrison 7 (Poveda-Ocampo 61, 6); Bamford 6. Subs not used: Casilla, Costa, Cresswell, Jenkins, Casey, Huggins. Booked: Phillips. Manager: Marcelo Bielsa 6. Referee: David Coote 7.
ONLY West Bromwich Albion have conceded more Premier League goals than Leeds United’s 33. Marcelo Bielsa’s team are running at almost two per game.
At the other end of the field, they are prolific. Only Liverpool, Leicester, Manchester United and Chelsea have scored more than their 30 and it could be argued that — at their very best — Leeds are better to watch than the last two on that list.
So how do we judge them? With some generosity, I think.
Bielsa has brought Leeds back to the top division after 16 years away and has decided not to take a step back to anybody.
It is an approach bolstered by belief in his players, his methods and a way of playing that has had younger men such as Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino in thrall to him for years.
Leeds supporters will not complain, and why would they? It has been a wild ride and it is better, surely, to be ballsy and brassy in the Premier League rather than meek and mild like West Brom this season or Norwich the last.
Equally, it will be fascinating to see if the 65-year-old changes anything as he moves through the season.
This is a Premier League campaign that actually offers him and his team more than they ever could have hoped for.
Even with a negative goal difference, Leeds are only six points off the Champions League places. But shipping two goals per game is unsustainable for a team that wants to make real progress.
There is a cult-like aura around Bielsa that means critical analysis of him is quickly shot down.
When Leeds lost 6- 2 at Old Trafford recently, it was suggested Bielsa’s approach had left his team open to counterattacks. That was borne out by the result and, indeed, a game that often felt more like basketball than football in terms of its rhythm.
But Bielsa’s disciples quickly got the hump and so did the man himself. He spoke at length about what he claimed was a media attempt to undermine his philosophies, even though his withdrawal of two midfielders at half-time appeared to indicate he knew deep down he had got things wrong.
Bielsa’s unshakable self-belief is a valuable part of him. Creative free- thinkers rarely accept they are wrong.
I thought his admission that he regularly sent spies to watch opponents train in the Championship was wonderful. Derby — the club that uncovered his impertinence — should have spent less time moaning and more time building a fence. Nevertheless, football is played at both ends of the field and it seems perfectly fair to ask why, under such a feted coach, Leeds have conceded six at United, four against Leicester, Crystal Palace and Liverpool and three against Tottenham, Chelsea and Fulham. When they fire — as they did when I saw Bielsa dismantle Aston Villa 3-0 in October — they are utterly compelling. But when they don’t, there is a vague chaos about them that will always catapult them to the front end of the Match of the Day schedule but perhaps hold them back in terms of their Premier League position. Bielsa is beautifully stubborn and nobody wants Leeds to fundamentally alter their approach to a football match. But it is possible to play frontfoot football while remembering how to defend and I suppose the question is this: do Leeds want to make a sustained impact on this average Premier League, or merely remain a fascinating and novel item of decoration? Ian.Ladyman@dailymail.co.uk