2019-04-01 World Soccer

down against West Brom.
When Dynamo Kiev coach Viktor
Maslov first introduced pressing in the
mid-sixties it led to a campaign in the
Moscow press insisting “we don’t need
this kind of football”.
Witnessing an intense level of pressing
clearly stimulates a response, but is it
useful? Perhaps it intimidates opponents
and gets the crowd going, but it’s hard to
see how that can possibly be efficient.
But there is a more fundamental
question and that is why, when Bielsa
sides have so often faded in the past,
should this time be any different?
Are we to believe that, at 63, he has
suddenly learned a major lesson and
tempered his idealism, that Leeds are
not being pushed quite so hard? Bielsa
has paid tribute to his conditioning
coaches, and perhaps they have done
a remarkable job, but physical fitness,
which can be monitored, is only part of it.
Ex-Newell’s midfielder Juan Manuel
Llop says Bielsa’s methods “provoke a
certain level of tiredness; not just physical
tiredness but also mental and emotional

tiredness because the competition level
is so high that it’s difficult to keep up with
it after a period of time”.
Statistical analysis struggles to expose
the imaginative weariness that means
possession is not turned into chances,
or the inner fatigue that prevents a side
scrapping to the final minute.
Bielsa has had a huge impact on
modern football and there is barely an
elite-level coach who has not in some
way been influenced by him. But, in its
purest form, his philosophy has never
been sustainable over the nine months
of a European season.
Leeds may yet prove the exception,
but with a fifth of the campaign still to
play, any doubts about sustainability are
entirely valid. And those doubts are, in
part, rooted in the limits of stats to
explain football.

1

NEW TAKEAWAY KIT

Chilean top-flight side O’Higgins

fell foul of the league authorities at

the start of the new season for wearing

fast-food inspired shirt numbers in their

opening game against Huachipato.

Following a deal with McDonalds,

O’Higgins’ pink shirts had numbers

represented by chips, with a dollop of

ketchup accentuating each number.

However, the Asociacion Nacional

de Futbol Profesional claimed the shirt

numbers were illegible from a distance

and on television, and said they would

sanction the club, who lost 2-1.

2

SCORING BEHIND BARS

Pavel Mamaev, who is on remand

in prison along with Alexander

Kokorin, scored seven goals in a six-a-

side game arranged in the Moscow

detention centre where the two Russian

international players are awaiting trial

for their involvement in a brawl last year.

Playing on a snowy, fenced-off area

against fellow detainees, Mamaev wore

no17, the same number he wears for

his club Krasnodar. To even things up,

Mamaev played one half for each team.

Kokorin missed the game because of

a knee injury.

3

DERBY BREAKOUT

Ten prisoners at a jail in Portugal

tried to use the Porto v Benfica

clasico as cover for an escape plan.

Hoping the prison guards would be

distracted by the evening’s game, the

inmates dug a hole in a cell wall.

The breakout was foiled by two guards

who ignored the match and uncovered

the plot while on their rounds.

4

NEW BALLS PLEASE

Bundesliga fans protested at the

recent Nuremberg v Borussia

Dortmund match by throwing black tennis

balls on to the pitch.

The match was halted twice as fans

took a stand against Monday night

Bundesliga matches, which will now be

abolished from the 2021-22 season.

5

WEIRD BEARD INJURY

Bordeaux midfielder Younousse

Sankhare was recently sidelined

due to “beard implant complications” after

undergoing a procedure at a private

facility to boost his facial hair.

6

PAPER SUBS

The assistant referee had to hold

up A4 paper with numbers printed

on after CONMEBOL forgot the electronic

substitution boards for the Libertadores

Cup game between Brazil’s Atletico

Mineiro and Defensor of Uruguay

in Belo Horizonte.

GLOBAL FOOTBALL INTELLIGENCE

REPORTS WE COULDN’T MAKE UP

Gaol scorer...

Pavel Mamaev

Fast food...(above)

O’Higgins’ chips

Blackballed...

Jadon Sancho

of Borussia

Dortmund

Substitute...paper

numbers in Brazil

Effort...Leeds swamp Swansea’s Bersant Celina