THE PREM ERA 29MARCELO BIELSA
Leeds United’s recent 6-2 defeat to
Manchester United brought a widespread
sucking of teeth and an insistence that their
manager Marcelo Bielsa was naive, that he
wouldhavetolearntheleague,thatyou
couldn’t just go to Old Trafford and play like
that. Which seemed oddly irrelevant. For
30 years Bielsa has been playing like that.
There are those who dismiss him as an
idealist – and three league titles, an Olympic
gold and promotion from the Championship
is a meagre return in a career so feted –
but he doesn’t send sides out to attack
remorselessly through some sense of
romantic compunction: he does it because
he believes it’s his best chance of winning.
Heis,inhisownway,apragmatist.
That game was effectively decided by two
goals in the first three minutes. The first was
the result of Leeds’ wide midfielders, Rodrigo
and Mateusz Klich, pushing high up the pitch
to create passing options.
It was precisely that adventurousness thathad caused Liverpool so many problems
and earned such praise on the opening day
of the season. But there is a reason why few
sides play like that: if possession is turned
over, as it was here, huge gaps open up.
Scott McTominay drove into that space
and scored.
Thesecondgoalwastheresultofan
individual error from Klich, not tracking
McTominay’s run. Once you’re 2-0 down
after three minutes, the game is effectively
done – particularly against a team as good
on the counter as United.
Bielsa takes the risk because, while
his team may suffer some heavy defeats,
he believes unsettling the opposition by
confronting them in a way with which they
are unfamiliar will win more games than
simply bunkering down and hoping for a
breakaway win on the counter. Perhaps
he is right in that and perhaps wrong,
but there is a need at least to frame the
discussion around that basic principle.Equally, it must be remembered
that Leeds were promoted with only
the seventh-highest wage bill in the
Championship. Even with a handful of
biggish signings since, in most Premier
League games they play they have the
poorer players. Often they make mistakes.
But where other managers might encourage
their players to operate within their limits,
Bielsa rarely seems critical of those who,
say, misplace a pass. The result is that Leeds
have a huge variance between playing well
and badly: only Fulham have given the ball
away more with unsuccessful touches but
only Aston Villa have had more shots from
inside the box.
Leeds often give away cheap goals,
but they often score brilliant ones. That is
what makes them such fun to watch. But
the two go hand in hand. To talk about
Leeds needing greater solidity is to deny
theessenceofwhatmakesthem,and
Bielsa, who they are.MARCH 2021
THE MISUNDERSTOOD BIELSA
Attempting to understand Leeds United and “Bielsa-ball”
Unusually in the modern age, Bielsa’s
sacking came not amid acrimony but
sadness. Over the first three years of his
reign, he had elevated fairly ordinary players
to produce a thrilling side that had taken
Leeds back to the Premier League. By the
end, though, the defence had fallen apart
with 40 goals conceded in his final12 league
games, and14 in the last three. There was
criticism of his man-to-man pressing system,
but that is how he has always played; it’s
unrealistic to expect him suddenly to change.
More importantly, it was that approach that
had brought his success, and made Leeds so
good to watch. Bielsa’s fundamentalism has
always had its critics, but the fact is that if
youhavethesecond-lowestwagebillin
the division and then lose a raft of players
toinjury,it’salwaysgoingtobedifficult.
Perhaps Bielsa’s approach has helped
exacerbate the situation. He had never
been at a club that long before. Perhaps the
sustained intensity of his approach is in part
responsible for the injuries, particularly given
APRIL 2022
FAREWELL TO BIELSA
Were Leeds United right
to dismiss Marcelo Bielsa?ythe recent compression of the calendar
because of COVID. Perhaps opponents
have begun to work out how to combat his
philosophy. If he wasn’t going to extend his
contract beyond the summer, it may make
sense to shake things up, to make thesacrifice to stop a slide that had seemed
inexorable. But it is a gamble: it was Bielsa
and his system that made Leeds what they
were, and as some of those injured players
return, a new manager may find it difficult to
organise or motivate them in the same way.