Stephen Warnock has aimed a subtle dig at Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa, claiming that his demanding training sessions are causing his players to get injured while also adding that the Argentine has not won anything in over a decade.
Leeds have suffered with a lot of injuries this season, especially to key players like Kemar Roofe, Pablo Hernandez and Barry Douglas, yet they remain second in the Championship table and look good for promotion back to the Premier League this season.
Ex-Whites defender Warnock believes that the injuries are down to the club’s training routine because he has heard that Bielsa gives his players hardly and rest and has them in to train seven days a week.
“It’s a brilliant club that is so well supported both home and away. There is an expectation that comes with playing for the club, and that can often weigh heavy on the players which I guess is just natural when you’re talking about expectation,” Warnock told Wigan’s official website
“With Bielsa in charge I think he’s quite good at grounding his players and takes a lot of the pressure off them, but again as much as I love Leeds I look at the squad and think are they strong enough?
“They’re losing a lot of their players to injury at this moment in time and whether that’s down to the training regime, which I hear is seven days a week with not much rest and break time in between.
“He hasn’t actually won anything in his last 10-15 years as a manager either.”
OPINION
Warnock was probably just trying to make himself look more like a ‘Wigan man’ going into their clash against Leeds at the DW Stadium on Sunday, but some of his comments here are quite poor. He spent two years of his career on the books at Elland Road and for him to criticise Bielsa – especially when his side are second in the table – is a bit odd and misjudged. Yes, Leeds have had injuries this season, a lot of them. However the fact that the Whites are still up there shows how good Bielsa is and that he understands that injuries are a risk of his managerial style yet he continues to get results. So what if he hasn’t won anything in the last 15 years either? Every single manager in the Championship would kill to have a career like he has done. He’s managed at the World Cup, won league titles and led Athletic Bilbao to the Europa League final. What has Paul Cook done in comparison?