Spygate? It’s a fine mess if you ask me!

SHOULD Leeds have been docked points over Spygate? No. I can’t even understand why they’ve been fined. Two-hundred grand? It was a bloke in a bush. It’s not like anyone’s been hurt. One team’s got an edge on another team and won the game. So what? Inside information gets passed round in football all the time. People watch training sessions all the time. You can go onto Wyscout and InStat and watch the opposition 20, 30 times. Anyone who does that will have a pretty good idea that so-and-so will play a certain formation.

I’ve played at clubs who trained on public parks. At Melwood, anyone can peer over the wall and see what Liverpool are up to.

You have open days at training. You promote the club on social media. You’ve got players talking to each other on Snapchat and Instagram. And you’re worried about somebody finding out your formation? Come on.

Worried

Get on with it. Worry about your team. So what if Marcelo Bielsa knows I’m playing 4-4-2? I’m not losing sleep over that. Because if my 4-4-2 turns up ready for war and plays better on the day, my 4-4-2 is going to win. End of story.

If you’re sitting there worried about what people know about you, it’s a reflection of your own insecurities. It’s like saying ‘It doesn’t matter what we do, Leeds will beat us anyway’.

If I was Derby and Frank Lampard, I wouldn’t be crying about it. I’d be thinking ‘Right, how can I get an edge on Leeds next time?’.

Because managers like Bielsa, they don’t just turn up for work, spin round on a chair and put their feet on the desk until 2 o’clock. The best ones work - hard.

Claude Puel, the gaffer here at Leicester (where I’m loans manager), is in the gym every morning chucking weights about and keeping himself in shape. He’s out on the training ground for hours on end. Doing analytical work here, there and everywhere.

The infamous presentation Bielsa put on, saying we do that, we do this, this is how we break down teams in England - it was fantastic, but it wasn’t surprising.

The man’s never worked in England before. He needs that information. If I went to manage in Belgium, I’d have to do research. I’d have to collect data. I’d have to lean on members of staff, contacts who knew the environment.

Information

‘Hey, Johnny, how does such-and-such a manager play? What’s that lad play like? What’s the standard of players from this division?’.

And he’s not stupid, by the way. All that stuff about cultural misunderstandings - he knew it would cause problems.

But he used the situation to let everybody in the division know he’s got one over on them, and that can’t help put play on the mind of anybody who faces Leeds.

That kind of savvy and experience is why I think Leeds - who started the weekend outside the top two for the first time since early November will get out of this little slump they’re enduring.

Yes, energy levels will dip. But as I’ve said before, Bielsa will have been through this situation ten, 20 times before in his career. He’ll be able to dig into that memory bank and pull out a strategy to arrest it.

That is why you pay top dollar for the managers with a track record of success. And it’s why I think Leeds will get results even if the great performances from earlier in the season ain’t there.