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Leeds United: Simon Jordan defends Marcelo Bielsa after ‘laughable’ claims calling for his exit

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Image for Leeds United: Simon Jordan defends Marcelo Bielsa after ‘laughable’ claims calling for his exit

TalkSport pundit Simon Jordan has launched a staunch defence of Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa after recent criticism that has come his way.

Leeds’ hopes of pulling away from the Premier League relegation zone suffered an awful hit on Wednesday as they fell to a 6-0 defeat. It’s a result that means they now have the worst defensive record in the division, with 56 goals conceded in their 25 games.

Fellow TalkSport pundit Gabriel Agbonlahor tore into the Argentine after the defeat to Liverpool, stating: “I’ve been saying this for a long time – yes, getting Leeds promoted and last season was amazing. I called it last season – second season syndrome, and everyone is going to find them out. Everyone is going to enjoy playing against them.”

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Jordan, though, who was also speaking on TalkSport, felt that Bielsa deserved some slack for the number of injuries that his side have had to put up with this season which has led to them being in this position, and that ultimately, his style of play would see them stay up.

He said: “This is the style that they play, and this is how they play. And they’ve had the situation where they’ve got this depleted squad for the entirety of the season. And there is an element of these key components that are out of their side [affecting] the whole axis of how this team plays.

“It is laughable to suggest that Leeds United need to be replacing him right now. He is an excellent coach, they’re having a difficult time.

“There are other teams in this division that are far worse than they are. This is a difficult time for Leeds United.

“But Leeds United are a very compelling football team. I think they’ll come through this situation, and then they can consider whether Bielsa is able to kick on based upon Radrizzani’s ambitions for the club.

“But I do not sit here and think that ultimately, that Bielsa should be changing things.”

TIF Thoughts on Simon Jordan’s comments about Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United…

Bielsa in or Bielsa out?

In

In

Out

Out

It certainly is an intriguing situation that Bielsa finds himself in at Elland Road. You would imagine has a lot of credit in the bank given the work he did in bringing Leeds back to the top flight and earning them a top-half finish last season.

But whilst some leeway can be granted given the severe injury crisis the club have had for large parts of the season, some of their shortcomings have been down to him due to his decision to carry a smaller squad than some might argue is needed in the Premier League, and so criticism for not dealing with it properly is perhaps warranted.

Though as Jordan hints at, all they need to do is make sure that they aren’t one of the three worst teams when all is said and done, and that will just give them the breathing space to reassess things in the summer and look at what they want to do as a club moving forward.

In other news: ‘Surprised’ – BBC pundit claims Leeds will try sign £20m star ‘if they stay up’

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Freelance sports journalist & broadcaster.