No wonder Pablo has Bielsa purring
SUBTLE GENIUS IS SPARKING LEEDS
He scored seven goals in his last seven games in the Eredivisie as well as assisting six, and he will be hoping to bring that late season form into this season
Pablo Aimar. Juan Roman Riquelme. Juan Seba Veron. Arturo Vidal. Alexis Sanchez. Dimitri Payet.
Marcelo Bielsa has shared a training ground with some of the most talented players ever to pull on a pair of boots.
And that’s just the midfielders. From Gabriel Batistuta to Javier
Zanetti, the Argentine could construct an all-time World XI from his illustrious alumni.
So it is testament to the excellence of Pablo Hernandez that Bielsa views the Spaniard as a player of rare ability.
Bielsa routinely plays down individual contributions, but not when it comes to Hernandez. “Pablo finds solutions that are above his technical skills,” he said after the 33-year-old bagged a brace in the midweek victory over Reading.
“He reads the game and when he does this, he puts the ball in the right places. It’s something that’s very hard to teach and something that’s very hard to learn.”
Leeds fans have heard such sentiments before. After Hernandez single-handedly marmalised Norwich in August, Bielsa was asked if he could improve the former Valencia man.
“I think he can make me a better head coach,” he said, “because I see solutions in the decisions he is taking. He is a complete player from every point of view and to have such an influence when you play in wide areas is not usual. I only saw this a very few times during my career,”
Hyperbole and overstatement are nothing new in football. Stiliyan Petrov, after all, once hailed Aston Villa team-mate John Carew as the best striker in the world. And as for Roberto Martinez, which of his players hasn’t been likened to Zinedine Zidane?
This, though, is Marcelo Bielsa, a man characterised by compulsive honesty and measured ambivalence.
Just look at his remarkable mea culpa post-Spygate, or indeed his thoughtful response to last week’s attack on Jack Grealish. When the 63-year-old puts Hernandez on a pedestal, he does so genuinely.
Enigmatic
Chances are, however, the little maestro won’t make any player of the year shortlists. His skillset is just too subtle, too enigmatic. Or, to quote Bielsa again, “not that evident or easy to detect”.
Like Mesut Ozil or, for the matter, the aforementioned Riquelme, Hernandez can look pedestrian, even disinterested, drifting out of games for vast tracts. All action he ain’t.
Many times I have sat at Elland Road doing out player ratings and dumped a cursory six at the end of his row.
It is only on closer inspection – such as against Bolton recently when it transpired that he had created TEN chances for his side – that you realise how quietly instrumental Hernandez has been.
Every movement, every decision and every pass is progressive and considered. Mistakes are rare, interventions decisive.
How many times in recent years has a faltering Leeds performance been rescued by an inch-perfect through-ball, whipped cross or direct free-kick that whistled into the top corner?
This season, too, no other player in the Championship has averaged so many key passes (three) per game.
Most players are cogs. They won’t make a good team worse, but nor will they make a good team better. Hernandez would improve anyone because he makes things happen.
With ten goals and 11 assists pre-weekend, maybe this will be the year his fellow pros take notice and offer him an end of season gong. In a way, though, it is almost fitting that this quiet little genius gets no attention at all.
Because for all the spectacular strikes, Hernandez is not about fireworks. He uses a football the way David Attenborough uses his voice; nothing showy, no bombast. Just restraint, class and gentle authority.