The misunderstood Marcelo Bielsa
Perhaps it was inevitable that Marcelo
Bielsa should become part of
England’s increasingly tedious culture
wars. He is, after all, foreign and
unusual and challenges our
preconceptions. He does not
fit readily into the pre-existing
templates. And so what is most
striking about the criticism of him this
season is how much of it has missed
the point. At the same time, there
are those at the other extreme who
regard him as an infallible, messianic
figure and refuse to countenance
any doubts. But at the very least,
questions about Bielsa should try
to take him on his own terms.
English football, though, has never
been very good at that. The bizarre
furore earlier this season over Bielsa’s
preference for speaking to the media
in Spanish stemmed from that same
closed-mindedness. If he’s really so
clever, ran the jibe, how come he
can’t speak English after two years in
Wetherby? To which there are three
answers. First: linguistic ability is only
one aspect of intelligence. Second: is
it really beneficial for him to expend
energy studying English when he
could be studying opponents? Andthird: while he almost certainly could
learn a dozen pre-set phrases to
select from then parrot after games,
who benefits from him doing that
rather than giving his typically
ponderous explanations? Not fans,
not people who actually want to
understand what is happening; really,
only journalists with quotes pieces to
file quickly.
The only real issue with language
is whether Bielsa can communicate
effectively with his players. At Leeds,
given they apparently adore him and
given his record, it would seem he isachieving that rather better than, say,
the English-speakers Dave Hockaday
or Paul Heckingbottom. Hiswin
percentage, at the time of writing, is
higher even than that of Don Revie.The 6-2 defeat to Manchester
United brought a widespread sucking
of teeth and an insistence that Bielsa
was naive, that he would have to
learn the league, that you 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 attackTHEWORLD THIS MONTH
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
Jonathan
WILSON
remorselessly through some sense
of romantic compunction: he does
it because he believes it’s his best
chance of winning. He is, in his own
way, a pragmatist.
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
that had caused Liverpool so manyMisunderstood...
Bielsa at Old
TraffordHe 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
Thrashed...Scott
McTominay opens the
scoring against Leeds