Bielsa’s Leeds looking like a less fierce version of their true selves - The Athletic 30/8/21
By Phil Hay
Jurgen Klopp’s face was a lasting image, fatigued by his
first encounter with Leeds United. Likewise Pep Guardiola, out in the rain at
Elland Road and drained by the devilment Marcelo Bielsa was causing. Managers
in the Premier League found out last season, driven to the edge and vocal with
their admiration.
Sean Dyche was never likely to let his facade crack like
that because Dyche is programmed to give less than an inch, armed with a plan
which is making his No 10, Ashley Barnes, the anti-Christ in the eyes of other
teams. For much of Sunday’s game at Burnley, though, Leeds’ reputation hid from
view, lacking the substance that built it so convincingly.
Bielsa’s squad do not intimidate with studs up or big hits
but their football at its best has been brutal in its brilliance, fierce enough
to make full time a blessing for the clubs who fare worst against it. That
football was why Chelsea set a record for distance covered against Leeds last
December and why, perhaps, they never flicked so brightly under Frank Lampard
again. Bielsa has a knack of making rival coaches adopt the brace position and
throw everything at him in return. The alternative approach rarely ends well.
Three games into this season and those levels of intimidation
are a little diminished, though Dyche was not dissuaded from thinking that
leaving a foot in was the best way as any to redress the 4-0 thrashing Leeds
dished out at Turf Moor three months earlier. Full contact was the order of the
afternoon and Burnley’s aggression shaped the game in a way which deprived
Bielsa’s players of their disciplined swagger. Manchester United on day one was
never a gimme for Leeds, and Everton at home was a hard second fixture. Burnley
away was the sort of date which guided Bielsa into ninth place last term. In
contrast, he entered the final five minutes yesterday 1-0 down and crying out
for a chance.
It materialised on 86 minutes and when Patrick Bamford
scored it, the goal came from the forward who tends to be waiting with a finish
up his sleeve whenever Leeds most need one. In that respect, they are still
that team. But the attempt to pin Burnley back came very late on, after a
period in which it looked like it would not come at all. Leeds had the ball —
they always have the ball — but at the point where Burnley opened the scoring
in the 61st minute, Leeds’ possession had resulted in less than 18 per cent of
the match being played in Burnley’s final third. Bamford’s finish was a first
shot on target and a welcome shot in the arm.
Chance creation and overwhelming pressure had been two of
Bielsa’s strengths at Leeds, the individual cornerstones of a highly-defined
style. That so many chances went begging in his first two seasons (a constant
gripe of one of the game’s perfectionists) only underlined the stress that
Leeds were able to inflict on the defence in front of them; wasteful in front
of goal but Championship winners nonetheless. Out of possession, Burnley
succeeded in blocking off passing lanes through the centre circle and limiting
sieges around their box. When precision mattered it was often lacking;
Bamford’s heavy touch wasting a quick first-half counter-attack and Raphinha’s
shot across goal doing the same in similar circumstances. A very different game
if those go in, rather than the game Burnley crafted.
Bamford’s close-range equaliser four minutes from time made
sense of two stories from the past fortnight, as if there was any mystery
behind them. His new contract at Leeds and the pay rise in it represents the
expectation that he will come up with 10 to 20 goals again this season and make
sure their league position is comfortable. His England call-up on Thursday,
four and a half years on from a torrid loan at Burnley where he and Dyche
banged heads badly, was Gareth Southgate giving into the fact that Bamford is
sticking around as a striker at this level. As he drove in a shot and set up a
late push for a winner, there were shades of the day at Turf Moor in 2011 when
Robert Snodgrass rescued Leeds with two goals from very little, the player
Simon Grayson knew he could count on to find the net.
In the build-up to Bamford’s finish was a little piece of
skill from Raphinha, enough to cause the unbalancing of the opposition, as
Bielsa likes to put it. Some of Leeds’ better traits were under the surface —
Bamford poaching, Raphinha scheming, Bielsa’s team possessing the stamina to
make Burnley sweat briefly in injury-time — but if styles make bouts then
Burnley’s devotion to street-fighting made this one for them. “The game was
very disputed,” Bielsa said, admitting that Burnley had not allowed Leeds to
settle or attack with much ferocity.
There were handicaps beforehand as Mateusz Klich and Junior
Firpo tested positive for COVID-19. No problem, Bielsa insisted, because he had
players prepared to cover for them but in a 3-3-1-3, Kalvin Phillips bore a
heavy load in midfield and Burnley tried hard to outnumber him. Dyche’s side
pressed, hassled and dived in when the opportunities arose and if there was any
doubt that referees are taking a lighter touch in the Premier League this
season, the evidence was all over the pitch. The shift in officiating is still
to find the balance between encouraging players not to simulate and encouraging
players to steam into each other. Parts of this campaign will ask Leeds to
scrap as hard as they play.
Bielsa’s squad, in their defence, have the physicality to do
that. And they can play considerably better than they have either side of a
spirited draw with Everton, a match which showed far more of the traits
commended by Klopp and Guardiola. These are the weeks of the season where
Bielsa’s squad routinely go to town, with vigour, flamboyance and a refreshed
outlook. The opening forays of this term have given him more to think about, a
swing in the balance of who is bossing who. In part it comes down to the thing
that has always lit the fire for him at Leeds: spark.