Blame me, not Leeds stars – Bielsa lifts lid on mental shortfall

Marcelo Bielsa has explained in great detail why Leeds’ “negative cycle” is purely down to him and not his players – as the Whites boss also revealed a mental shortfall in their game.

Four defeats in their last six games have seen the Whites relinquish their grip at the top of the Championship; Bielsa has already explained why he won’t change his footballing philosophies as a result.

And the Leeds boss went to great pains to suggest that his players absolutely must not take the heat for their struggles.

Insisting last Saturday’s defeat to Norwich was only his fault, Bielsa admitted the decisions he took didn’t work, before adding: “If we were as efficient as the opponent we would have won. If we hadn’t contributed to the goals the opponent scored, we would have won by a large margin.

“We don’t rely on the changes the opponent makes. We only rely on our efficiency and on the development of our style. When we play well we can beat any model from the opponent. When we don’t, any model we play against is hard for us.”

Bielsa added: “The opponent had six chances to score and scored three goals. We had a contribution which made it easier. Apparently there is space for criticism of this but I don’t think so. When the style demands you move the goal from your own keeper, the possibility to lose the ball is inherent.”

“The players are faithful to this style which is why I can’t say they were responsible.”

 

Bielsa on Leeds mental issue

Bielsa says there is a “mental impact” on his players when they dominate spells of games but don’t score.

“The mental response of our players to ups and downs, this is the responsibility of the head coach,” he added.

Bielsa said Leeds had more possession against Norwich, and more chances. In all, he felt they did a lot of what he wanted them to do. “What kind of criticism could I make of the players? I couldn’t criticise anything,” he insisted.

“There’s a habit with a lot of head coaches around the world, a sentence very common: ‘I’m responsible for the negative cycle of the team.’ If we don’t explain why, we induce the listener to reach the opposite conclusion, as the head coach doesn’t explain.

“In the second half, I made changes and the team didn’t play better. The team played worse. You can see clearly that I’m responsible as the head coach. Because what happened in the first half was good.

“The effort in the last few minutes of the game was moving. They kept running as if it was 0-0. They played beautiful football, they created chances.”

 

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