Marcelo Bielsa is a world class manager, that much is certain and his already brilliant reputation has only been enhanced since he arrived at Elland Road.
The Argentinian instantly turned an under par Leeds team into a top four Championship side in 2018/19 before wrapping up the Championship title the following season.
An amazing Premier League season followed as the Whites finished in the top half of the table leading many to believe that he could take Leeds into Europe on the back of this season but a slow start has caused some to worry about relegation rather than look towards the prospect of European football next year.
It’s true that Leeds haven’t had the start to the season they’d have wanted and recent results haven’t helped that. The Whites were blown away against Liverpool before they dropped two points against Newcastle last week.
In today’s programme, ahead of the defeat to West Ham, Bielsa provided an analysis of the recent slip ups even admitting to a mistake in the way he set up against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. He said: “Starting with our previous home match against Liverpool, we struggled to recover the ball and the way I planned for the game didn’t allow our forwards to shine. Liverpool managed to get their forwards into the game and were able to create danger and chances at goal. On the occasions we did manage to recover the ball, it was difficult for us to put passes together and ultimately, they deserved the victory.”
He then went onto admit that his side should’ve done better at St James’ Park: “Against Newcastle United in the following game, it was a match we should have won. We had lots of opportunities to score and more chances to create danger .
“I believe we dominated the game. They were forced to counter-attack and we were disappointed not to leave with all three points.”
It’ll be interesting to see what he says about today’s defeat and how he plans to get Leeds back on track.
