OPINION
Stoke City manager Nathan Jones revealed after his side defeated Leeds United 2-1 on Saturday that he changed his tactics due to knowing that Marcelo Bielsa would have done his homework.
The Potters manager remarked on his side’s impressive win and shared how due to the Leeds boss publicly revealing he had watched some Luton games, Jones’ old team, as well as his current side play; he’d opted to change tact in order to spring a surprise.
“It’s been well publicised that Marcelo has watched 26 Luton games,” said Jones, as quoted by Leeds Live.
“He’s watched Stoke’s games too, so he’s well drilled on our what our formation is. So we thought we may have to give him a surprise because if he’s that well drilled on us, then they’ve had plenty of time to work on it and they know what they are doing. It would be a difficult afternoon.
“We felt that with their threats they’ve got and with no time to work with them really, so we felt to give us the best platform to win a football match we needed to be tactically right at it and I felt we were.
“We didn’t have much time to work on it, only Friday, but the players took it on board and let’s be honest, we’ve got some top players here, so it’s slightly easier going in with a different formation with top players because they can take it on board.”
Based on the fact Jones only knew Bielsa’ style and preparation due to the manager coming out to reveal all, to some degree, after Leeds seems to cause controversy by spying on Derby ahead of facing them, it shows he already being punished over the incident.
The Leeds boss in a bid to answer any question that had emerged after he admitted sending a spy to watch Derby, as reported on by the BBC, he gave a detailed press conference to journalist which readily available to read on such publication as the Daily Mirror.
This means other managers like Jones are using this new found knowledge that Bielsa had to reveal due to the spy scandal, to get one over on Leeds and catch them by surprise.
While it may not always work, it helped Stoke get the victory and in a way showed that Leeds is already being punished for the whole use of spies as others are trying to take advantage of it.
The English football league are investigating the spy scandal, as reported by the Daily Mail, and will perhaps issue a punishment if they sit fit, but clearly Bielsa has already been penalised for his tactics based on Jones remarks’ about Stoke’s win over Leeds.