2019-04-01 World Soccer

It seemed to be happening again as

Leeds United lost 1-0 at Queens Park

Rangers – their fifth defeat in 10

games. Was this what everybody had

expected would happen? After all, the

history of Marcelo Bielsa’s managerial

career is littered with promising starts

followed by late-season collapses.

It happened at Athletic Bilbao. It

happened at Marseille. And it even

happened at his first club, Newell’s Old

Boys, who won just nine games in the

whole of 1991 – in between claiming

the Argentinian Apertura in 1990 and

the Clausura in 1992.

Historically, Bielsa’s football has

proved too intense to sustain over

a full season and this was always the

question lurking in the background

when he joined Leeds in the summer.

Within weeks of taking the job

he had become a messianic figure,

inspiring hope where for so long there

had been none. He was eccentric and

stubborn, and he got his team playing

thrilling football. The absurdity of

“Spygate” – a man stood on public

land, looking over a fence – and

the hysterical reaction from certain

sections of English football only added

to his popularity.

But always there was a nagging

doubt: could football like Bielsa’s really

The pressing

questions over

Bielsa’s energy

“What our team has shown in every game

is that we have an excess of energy”

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa

Jonathan

WILSON

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

be maintained over the full 46 games

of a Championship season?

When Leeds lost at Loftus Road,

Bielsa must have expected the

questions. Were Leeds suffering a

decline in energy levels? Was the

familiar pattern repeating? His

response was unusually spiky.

“Your question does not have any

basis because if you watch the game

you can see that this team has much

energy,” he said. “What our team has

shown in every game is that we have

an excess of energy.

“It’s clear that you don’t know what

you are talking about, because if there

is something this team doesn’t lack it

is energy. If you look at the figures you

can see that if there is a problem that

this team has, it is not a lack of energy.”

While that might not have seemed

especially significant, as managers

often snap in press conferences after

a disappointing result, Bielsa returned

to the issue in his programme notes

for Leeds’ next game, at home to West

Bromwich Albion, reassuring fans that

energy levels are fine. Which does

perhaps suggest somebody protesting

too much, as though this is an issue

about which Bielsa is sensitive.

Whether he is right or not, it cannot

be doubted that he believes what

he says. What exactly the figures are

he references is unclear, though the

Argentinian almost certainly has more

information to judge such issues than

any other manager in the division.

A crude guide to how hard a team is

pressing is to look at how many tackles

they are making. Leeds have averaged

19.5 this season but made 24 against

QPR. They then made 33 in beating

West Brom 4-0 the following Friday, a

game that featured one of those GIF-

able clips of four players charging at

an opponent who has the ball. Leeds,

so it would appear, are as fit as ever.

Except that it’s not quite as simple

as that.

There are many reasons why a side

might make a lot of tackles. It may be

that they are pressing hard and high,

denying their opponents any time on

the ball. Or it may be simply that they

are squandering possession a lot.

Leeds have had 59.5 per cent

possession this season, more than any

other Championship side. They are

also fourth for passing accuracy, which

means the fact they top the tackles-

attempted chart isn’t because they

give the ball away a lot. That said, both

possession and pass success rate were

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Eccentric and

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Marcelo Bielsa