Ian Wright claims one Leeds player made to look stupid for following Bielsa orders
Ian Wright has said that Kalvin Phillips was made to look a bit stupid in the 6-2 thrashing that Man United handed out to Leeds earlier in the season.
However, he said it was purely down to Phillips following the orders that Marcelo Bielsa gave him – to follow Bruno Fernandes everywhere.
He said that Bielsa pulled out a masterpiece of tactics to ensure that the same didn’t happen again in the game last weekend.
The second game couldn’t have been any more different, with Leeds and Man United sharing the spoils in a 0-0 draw.
Talking on the Wrighty’s House podcast he said, “Did you see the Leeds v Man United game? Just quickly, I just love the way Leeds… remember they got beat by six up there doing this man-marking thing, following people around.
“I watched them the other day, people have been talking about Bielsa being one-dimensional, Leeds the other day it was a masterpiece.
“I sent a message to Kalvin Phillips saying, ‘Bro, excellent, fantastic performance.’
“He sent a message back saying ‘It was a hard day at the office’.
“I think he thought they were going to do the same thing again… Kalvin Phillips only followed Bruno Fernandes in certain places.”
Co-host Musa Okwonga said, “Last time he followed him too much.”
“He followed him to the point, it was ridiculous, it made Kalvin Phillips look like he’s not an intelligent footballer and he is,” Wright said.
“All he was doing was following orders. Fernandes walked out of the middle of the pitch which is Kalvin Phillips’ domain, and he had to go with him… Scott McTominay, blam, Luke Shaw, blam, just blasted through the middle.”
Evolution of Bielsa-ball
Wrighty makes a good point, although we still think the 6-2 reverse fixture was lightning in a bottle for Man United and Solskjaer.
However, Leeds have evolved and Bielsa has evolved the gameplan against teams like Man United and Liverpool.
The results speak for themselves. Leeds are unbeaten and have five points from three games against Man City, Man United and Liverpool.
We scored three and only conceded two goals in those games.
Pundits said that Leeds and Bielsa only have a Plan A. Well now they’ve got Plan A and Plan A-and-a-half.
It’s already been a brilliant season. Next season, with a year in the top-flight under his belt, we’re expecting even more masterpieces from Bielsa.
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