PEP GUARDIOLA and Mauricio Pochettino call him the best coach in the world.
But Leeds fans might wonder if Marcelo Bielsa is turning into a pound-shop Unai Emery.
Leeds and Marcelo Bielsa are faltering again – just as they did last seasonCredit: Reuters
The veteran Argentine has already overseen one massive Elland Road choke after chucking away promotion to the Premier League last season.
Now there is a growing fear in the biggest European city without a top-flight football team that it is going to happen all over again.
Two months ago Leeds were top of the Championship with an 11-point lead over third-placed Fulham.
But failure to beat Bristol City tomorrow will probably see them drop out of the automatic promotion places and raise further uncertainty about Bielsa’s methods.
Dour, stubborn and refusing to compromise, he was welcomed to ‘God’s own county’ with open arms by Yorkshiremen who recognised a kindred spirit.
He quickly endeared himself to the locals by sitting on a bucket and spending so long in the Wetherby branch of Costa Coffee they boosted their WiFi to accommodate his internet access.
LONGEST 30 MINUTES OF MY LIFE
But now they are having major doubts about a man who has blindly persisted with goal-shy Patrick Bamford in attack and error-prone Kiko Casilla in goal.
Like fellow Spanish keepers Roberto, Kepa Arrizabalaga and even David De Gea, Casilla has been a cause for concern all season.
Maybe the lack of form is catching. Or maybe it’s the lack of catching that is the problem.
Tuesday’s howler in the costly 1-1 draw at Brentford, when the ball ran under his foot, has to be seen to be believed and leaves Leeds on a run of one win in seven league games this year.
But don’t ask Bielsa to explain the slump unless you have the patience of a saint. I endured one of his recent post-match press conferences and it turned out to be the longest 30 minutes of my life.
At 64-years-old maybe it’s too late in his life for this old dog to learn new languages.
He reminds me of an old British couple I recently met who proudly boasted of their inability to speak a single word of Spanish despite living on the Costa Brava for the past ten years.
Marcelo Bielsa has continued to back Patrick Bamford despite the strikers poor scoring recordCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Spanish keeper Kiko Casilla is another Leeds player to have kept his place despite much-criticised formCredit: Getty Images – Getty
It doesn’t help that his staring-at-the-floor monologues are translated by assistant coach Diego Flores, whose grasp of English doesn’t appear to be much better than Bielsa’s.
It is hard to understand how he can possibly motivate his players without making any attempt to speak the same language.
And if Leeds do manage to hang on to promotion, that lack of communication skills will be a real issue in the Premier League next season.
Poor old Emery was widely mocked for his ‘good ebening’ catchphrase at Arsenal but at least he had a go at speaking the lingo.
But pity the poor Match of the Day editors charged with getting a coherent soundbite from Bielsa on a weekly basis.
Like Emery, Bielsa was heralded as a technical and tactical genius when he arrived in England last season.
Yet for a man so widely admired by his fellow coaches, his CV does not exactly give Leeds cause for optimism.
Ex-Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino and Man City chief have both hailed Marcelo Bielsa as the finest coach on the planetCredit: Getty Images – Getty
In 30 years of management, he has only won a couple of Argentine League Championships back in the 1990s and a 2004 Olympic gold medal.
His time in European football has been more notable for dramatic bust-ups at Napoli and Lille and a late-season collapse at Marseille. Sound familiar?
Yet with respect to all of their promotion rivals, no team would bring more to the Premier League next season than Leeds.
It is easy to forget they have won the title more recently than Liverpool, Spurs and Everton and a fan base to rival any of the top clubs.
With a higher average home attendance than ten current top-flight teams, every match would have a real edge.
That’s something which the likes of Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich and Brighton will never be able to offer.
English football needs Dirty Leeds back in the big time.
Bielsa, currently earning more than Frank Lampard and Mikel Arteta, simply has to deliver.
CITY ROW SO MESSI
MANCHESTER CITY are getting their knickers in a twist again over suggestions Uefa are going to punish them for breaking Financial Fair Play rules.
So maybe now is not the best time for them to be linked with a £1million-a-week deal for Lionel Messi.
It has been hard enough for the City bean-counters to keep a straight face in recent years.
But signing the world’s highest-paid footballer while under investigation for creative accountancy really would be taking the p***.
Incidentally, can anyone explain why Pep Guardiola’s team have been installed as favourites to win the Champions League this year?
As things stand, they are 22 points off being the best team in England and look a pale imitation of the side they were only last season.
Maybe bookies think they have been taking it easy in the league so they can focus all their energy on conquering Europe.
But having failed to win the European Cup when they were at their absolute best, there is little reason to believe they can succeed when they look so out of sorts.
Particularly when they have Real Madrid in the last 16.
The last thing Man city need right now is to be linked with big-money moves for superstars like Lionel MessiCredit: Getty Images – Getty
PICK ‘N MIXED UP
JORDAN PICKFORD reckons the whole world has got it in for him because he’s an England international.
He’s particularly unhappy with criticism from Gary Neville and admits he’s p****d off by the stick generated by his recent Everton displays.
But his outburst has only served to highlight that you should never trust a goalkeeper who wants to be the centre of attention.
In years gone by they said you had to be mad to be a keeper and the likes of John Burridge and Bruce Grobbelaar were only too happy to play the clown.
Jens Lehmann became an Arsenal Invincible despite his team-mates never being quite sure what he was going to do next.
But the days of the crazy keeper are over. Calm, steady and predictable is now the name of the game.
No one doubts the hyperactive Pickford’s athleticism, bravery or shot-stopping.
But it seems he is too easily distracted and there comes a time when fearless becomes reckless.
He needs to start making better decisions on and off the pitch.
PLIED OF LIONS
GARETH SOUTHGATE’S heart must have sunk when he read reports of James Maddison, Jack Grealish, Ross Barkley and Ben Chilwell on the lash in Dubai before joining Dele Alli and Stormzy for a mid-season yacht trip.
The straight-laced England boss likes his players squeaky clean but that’s not how his Euro 2020 squad is shaping up.
It’s a good job they don’t serve Dom Perignon at St George’s Park.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
