Exclusive Marcelo Bielsa Interview: Uncompromising Leeds Style of Play Before Man Utd Showdown | Football news

Marcelo Bielsa is in full swing. The Leeds manager has just finished a one-hour press conference in which he spoke on topics ranging from the concussion protocol to Basque identity and the conversation continues Sky sports immediately after.

We return to the subject of Leeds. On Sunday, the Yorkshire side will face old rivals Manchester United in the Premier League for the first time in 16 years. Having ended her top-flight exile, Bielsa is now tasked with reestablishing her presence there.

It is not an easy task and the events of the last few months show it. Leeds can still pull off the top-half finish that many proposed to them, but are currently in 13th place after recently ending a streak of bad form that threatened to push them into danger.

The results have been mixed, but Bielsa’s dedication to his style of play at full speed is complete. That has been evident since the season began marking Liverpool all over the field, throwing bodies forward with a level of attacking intent rarely seen in an away team at Anfield. “I think some teams are going to be scared,” he said. Sky sports expert Gary Neville.

It took a late penalty from Mohamed Salah to deny Leeds a draw that day and Neville’s prediction has come true ever since. But there have also been emphatic defeats. They were beaten 4-1 by Leicester and suffered the same fate against Crystal Palace a week later. The wolves, Chelsea and West Ham have also taken over.

“We have not always managed to impose our style”, says Bielsa Sky sports, speaking about Zoom from the club’s Thorp Arch training ground. “In fact, there have been more occasions when we have not succeeded than when we have.

“In the Championship, our games were all very similar. But each game we play in the Premier League is a different challenge than the one before. There have been good and bad moments, good and bad games. We are working on that but we are not yet a team. consistent “.

Perseverance, progress and pressure

Bielsa hopes to find that consistency by staying true to the principles that have guided him throughout his three decades of managerial career. It’s not so much about this Leeds adapting to the Premier League as it is about the Premier League adapting to them.

“A ‘Plan B’ is like an anxiolytic, something that can reduce anxiety,” he says. “What I want to happen has not happened, so I demand that you stop what you are doing and do something different.

“Obviously, if something different turns out to be effective, it will look like a success. But from my point of view, what you have to decide as a manager is whether to completely replace the structure that you are trying to build, or whether to correct what is not. works.

“Each coach has their own profile and they try to maintain that profile by preserving the things that are good and removing those that are not. There are very few coaches who jump from one style to another and that is because they establish a style of play. It is very, very difficult and is linked to the way you interpret football.

“This is not intended to be a criticism of anyone, but if someone stops thinking as they think and starts doing the opposite, then it is difficult to make it work in football. Giving up your convictions is not a good way to move a project forward. “.

And furthermore, why change a formula capable of yielding results like Wednesday’s thrilling 5-2 win over Newcastle? Leeds entered the game having lost four of their last six Premier League games, but produced a performance that Bielsa considers the best of the season.

“There is a very important detail about the game that very few people have noticed,” he says. “In the first half, we created a lot of opportunities and we had a lot of possession. The opposing coach realized this and took a number of steps to change it at half-time.

“I don’t know exactly what the steps were, but the opposition ran much more in the second half than in the first half. Normally, this would have changed the course of the game. But even though they multiplied their efforts, we continued to maintain our supremacy over they.

“In other words, we neutralized their reaction. We played the whole game the same way, which is very difficult to do.”

Leeds secured that win with three breakaway goals in the final 13 minutes at Elland Road, suggesting that the pre-match conversation about exhaustion (it has come earlier this year) was premature at best.

The Premier League tracking data also offers compelling evidence for that. So far this season, Bielsa’s team has outscored their opponents in every game, and by an average of 4.3 km. They were the fittest team in the Championship and have the same status in the top flight.

It is a source of immense satisfaction for Bielsa.

“Running is a very significant value because it indicates sacrifice,” he says. “There are times when the meters you run help achieve your goals and there are times when they don’t. But they show the effort put into doing things in a certain way.”

The numbers are so high not just because of the way Leeds pressure their opponents, hunting in packs and looking to force mistakes high up the field, but because of the way they attack. The white jerseys advance in numbers, overwhelming opponents as they did with Newcastle on Wednesday night.

“Running reflects the energy you put into scoring and defending, but it also means that whoever has the ball has more options of where to pass it because there is more movement around them and therefore more difficulties for the opponent,” explains Bielsa.

“It also means that if you lose the ball in a good way, that is, at the end of an attack rather than during the build-up of an attack, you can defend better at the top of the field because you have players there and you are not disorganized.”

Ruthless, ruthless and ready for Manchester United

Bielsa’s style of play is inherently risky, so it is perhaps not surprising that they have been punished at times after moving from the Championship to the Premier League this season.

There has been vulnerability of set pieces and also open play. Only West Brom, ranked 19th, have conceded more goals.

Another technician could have asked for greater caution, but Bielsa’s instinct takes him in the opposite direction. His solution is not to sit down, but to be even more aggressive.

“Where I think we can improve is in our aggression to recover the ball and in the pressure that we apply in the opposite field so that they cannot put their attackers in dangerous positions,” he says.

When it comes to defending set pieces, it’s about limiting opponents’ opportunities rather than changing the way your team handles them.

“You have to be more careful with fouls,” adds Bielsa. “It is an equation that is very difficult, but you have to look at the danger of an attack the moment a foul is committed and compare it with the danger that there would be after a foul, when the opponent has their free kick. a lot of maturity to understand which situation is more dangerous “.

However, Bielsa’s main focus is to make his side more powerful at the other end of the field. So far this season, Leeds are second only to Liverpool in terms of expected shots and goals, but shooting opportunities have been a problem throughout the Argentine’s tenure.

There have been signs of progress lately. Leeds have scored 22 goals so far and Patrick Bamford has scored nine of them. But the 27-year-old has still missed more important opportunities than any other Premier League player. Your total, in other words, could, and perhaps should, be even higher.

It’s an enigma for Bielsa to solve, but he’s encouraged by the frequency with which his players put their teammates in the right positions.

“The only way to improve efficiency in front of goal is by creating chances that are easier to score,” he says.

“It’s very easy to tell a player: ‘Don’t get lost!’ But that player is just going to reply, ‘Well, I don’t want to get lost!’

“It is impossible to demand that of a player because, of course, the player already wants the same as you.

“However, there is a way to do it, and it is to prepare the attack to generate easier scoring chances to take advantage of. Ezgjan Alioski’s goal against Newcastle, for example, was facilitated by a pass from Pablo Hernández that he put in a great position.

“There are other ways to do it too, of course. Jack Harrison’s goal after Alioski’s is an example of a player taking a much more difficult opportunity. But if you create easier opportunities, the chances of scoring increase.

“Sometimes we have been able to do that this season, sometimes not. In the game against West Ham, we had fewer opportunities than our opponent. In the game against Chelsea, we also had fewer opportunities.”

“But we work a lot on developing our attacking game because that’s the most difficult thing in football.”

Leeds were undoubtedly rewarded for their hard work against Newcastle on Wednesday and the hope now is that the same applies against Manchester United. On his last visit to Old Trafford, in March 2012, Bielsa enjoyed one of his best nights in management, guiding a young and brave Athletic Bilbao to a famous 3-2 victory that he still cherishes today.

A repeat of that result on Sunday would surely top it.

Watch Manchester United vs Leeds live on Sky Sports Premier League HD from 4.15pm on Sunday; The start is at 4.30 pm