OPINION
Ask any Leeds fan about the impact Marcelo Bielsa has had at Elland Road this season and we’d guarantee the word “failure” isn’t the one on their lips.
Bielsa has taken a rag-tag squad that finished 13th in the Championship last season and turned them into promotion contenders. And, while it looks like automatic promotion is going to evade them, they’re guaranteed a play-off place and are just three games away from the Premier League for the first time since 2004.
However, writing in the Mirror, chief football writer John Cross has infuriated the Leeds faithful with an article that focuses on the negative.
He says that Leeds gambled by spending all their money on Bielsa instead of new players, and that his methods have left the players with nothing in the tank.
Cross wrote: “Bielsa’s players already look burnt out and worn out from the manager’s demands which have left Leeds looking as if they are running on empty.”
We’d say he obviously hasn’t been watching Leeds. In the last outing, the 2-0 defeat to Brentford, they dominated possession, as they have all season, with 63% of the ball and 18 shots to their opponent’s 12.
The big problem for Leeds is converting dominance into goals not burnout – and one fan pointed out that burn-out is a “myth” that’s been perpetuated about Bielsa’s sides.
But, irrespective of that, calling Bielsa an £8.5million gamble that has left them “staring at glorious failure once again” is just lazy journalism – as pointed out by one Leeds fan.
Surely taking a team, spending little on new players and going from 13th to third in the Championship is a sign of glorious progression? But perhaps that doesn’t sell as much as the headline the Mirror chose to go with.
Marcelo Bielsa gamble leaves Leeds staring at glorious failure once again |@johncrossmirror https://t.co/BADSGnsq9G pic.twitter.com/vWrtJJTgQ8
— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) April 25, 2019
Leeds fans flocked onto Twitter to make that point and let Cross know exactly what they think of him:
https://twitter.com/tonypdickinson/status/1121484115910496258
Good stories dont sell, how he can say Bielsa has backfired I'll never know considering where we've come from. Wheres the story about Stoke who've spent shit loads to finish 15th? Surely that's more of a gamble which has backfired??
— Luke (@luke_hill) April 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/yonyteboah/status/1121515681583857669
Pathetic article
— Simon McWilliams (@si_lufc84) April 25, 2019
Wow how sloppy is this. Gamble already paid off. We may have blown it for automatic but you're missing the real story and all the nuances by a mile.
— ¡Fletch, Carajo! (@fletchthemonkey) April 25, 2019
not a failure compared to last year and the development of u23s – over achieved …. and the season is far from over
— DazIll ? (@Desmondo007) April 25, 2019
Does anyone actually care what the sun/mirror journos write? Clueless beyond belief.
— David Wood (@mrdavidnwood) April 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/witneywhite/status/1121484086500057088
https://twitter.com/gazleeds92/status/1121557369257955328
Leggy and tired is a lazy blanket generalisation of Bielsa’s teams. In the (in)famous Bilbao season, they played 62 games! Who wouldn’t be tired? Not the case if you watch LUFC. You also can’t ignore the injuries this season yet the team is 3rd. Same squad that was 15th last year
— Tomi Oladipo (@Tomi_Oladipo) April 25, 2019
If you'd done your research (as I recommend that all journalists do) you'd find that burnout at the end of a season under Bielsa is just a myth. Look it up and compare it with any other managers record. Maybe you could write about it? At least that would be an original story
— Steve Turner (@SteveLTurner) April 25, 2019