Marcelo Bielsa insists changing Leeds United's style will not help after 6-0 defeat at Liverpool - Yorkshire Post 23/2/22

Marcelo Bielsa admitted he was questioning himself after conceding six goals at Anfield on the back of four against Manchester United, but the Leeds United coach insisted a change of style was not the answer to their very obvious problems.

By Stuart Rayner

The 6-0 defeat tipped the Whites' Premier League goals conceded beyond the 54 they shipped in the whole of the last campaign.

Leeds posed Liverpool some attacking problems, with Dan James lively up front, in the opening quarter of an hour but in doing so they left themselves vulnerable too.

Mohamed Salah put them in front from a 15th minute penalty, and with the lead extended to 3-0 by half-time, the game was effectively over.

"How am I not going to question what I'm doing?" asked Bielsa. "Of course I question myself.

"You have to ask why the things are happening to us are happening. I don't think a change of style is going to change what is happening to us.

"The security we were able to play with last season, this season we haven’t been able to conserve it. In certain games it has been very evident, our weakness. The game against (Manchester) City, today’s game, we have shown ourselves very weak, to come up against the superiority of these two teams.

"But we come from a defeat against Man Utd where from my point of view it allowed us to come into this game thinking we can trust in our strengths. But evidently the conclusions from the game today are totally negative. "

The opening goal came when Andrew Robertson ran untracked down Leeds's right and put in a cross which hit Stuart Dallas's hand away from his body as he turned his back. Raphinha had been recalled to the side as the right winger.

"The way Leeds defend it gives you, especially on the right side, gives you a chance," noted Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp afterwards.

Bielsa defended Raphinha, saying: "When he had to defend, he defended always. Better in the second half than in the first."

Liverpool's third goal was alarming because Joel Matip was able to stride forward from right-sided centre-back, as Victor Lindelof had a number of times during SUnday's 4-2 defeat to Manchester United. Matip exchanged passing with Salah before scoring.

Asked about the issue, Bielsa greeted the question with a rueful smile and a nod of the head.

"The centre-backs driving with the ball is a problem that has become very evident," he said. "The solutions are very clear. When the centre-backs drives with the ball he passes the winger on the side he’s on, the central midfielders, the attackers, and eventually they come up against our free man or the centre-back who's not marking.

"There are four stages where we can recover the ball but that problem, it is clear, I have not been able to resolve."