Samu Saiz on ‘difficult’ Marcelo Bielsa and suggests £25m Leeds man sums up ‘boring’ football — Leeds United News 12/3/25

Dan Owen

The vast majority of the Leeds United squad might have bought immediately into his methods but life under Marcelo Bielsa is not for everyone.

For all his god-gifted talent, Samu Saiz always felt like a pretty awkward fit for a Marcelo Bielsa team.

Not quite a luxury player, per se, but a performer of easy-listening jazz set against a coach who shared Jurgen Klopp’s love for ‘heavy-metal football’.

While undoubtedly the most naturally gifted member of the Leeds United squad Bielsa inherited in the summer of 2018 – well, with the possible exception of Pablo Hernandez – Saiz was a distant memory by the time Premier League football returned to Elland Road two years later.

As reporter Phil Hay would explain to the Yorkshire Post at the time, the silky Spaniard struggled with the sheer physical demands of Bielsa’s training sessions. In an time of ‘murderball’ and relentless running, Samu Saiz was often found choking on the dust of the turbo-charged Mateusz Klich or the tri-lunged Gianni Alioski.

Samu Saiz explains the pros and cons of Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa

Homesickness is often noted as the reason why Saiz returned to Spain – first with a loan spell at Getafe and then a permanent move to Girona – early in the Bielsa era. There were suspicions, however, that both parties simply accepted they were not right for each other.

Far from a toxic relationship but two people with different desires.

“Bielsa is crazy about football,” Saiz recalls, speaking seven years on in quotes reported by Sporx. “He breathes football.

“His training sessions are very long. You have to be physically strong. Working with him is very enjoyable [but] since he knows football very well, you have to be constantly careful. You have to do exactly what he says.

“Working with him was exciting. He is a very important person in the world of football. He is the best.

“However, working with him is very difficult.”

There was also the sense that Samu Saiz was something of a footballer out of time. Like a Betamax in an era of DVDs. Like James Rodriguez at Everton. Philippe Coutinho at Barcelona. Mario Gotze at Bayern Munich.

An old-school number ten in a game obsessed with high-pressing and running stats.

Saiz is hardly a fan of the modern era’s demands for strength over skill. One suspects, then, that a player now operating in Turkey with Pendikspor at the age of 34 would not be all that keen on the man currently occupying the closest thing Daniel Farke’s Leeds United have to a ‘number ten’ role.

Brenden Aaronson has no goals and one assist in his last 12 Championship games.

And while his ‘expected assists’ tally of eight is the third highest in Leeds’ squad, the America international is arguably more beneficial to Farke’s system due to his discipline out of possession and his pressing from the front.

Only two players – right-back Jayden Bogle and defensive midfielder Ao Tanaka – have won more tackles than Aaronson across 2023/24.

“In the past, football was played where the number tens had more impact on the game,” Saiz explains. “Number tens are not seen that way anymore. [By often being used in a front three instead] they have lost some of their effectiveness.

“Currently, coaches prefer number tens who help the midfield and prioritise strength [over skill]. I find this boring. Strength has taken precedent over talent. This is boring and harms modern football.