Dean Saunders: Leeds boss Bielsa must limit damage playing vs top sides
Dean Saunders has slammed Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa for sticking to his style of play in the heavy defeats over the last two Premier League games.
The Whites lost 7-0 to Manchester City before losing 4-1 to Arsenal days later on Saturday (18 December), and the Welsh manager said on talkSPORT that he would have shut up shop the moment Pep Guardiola’s side made it 4-0 at the Etihad.
Leeds travel to Liverpool on Boxing Day, and they will be expected to go toe to toe against Jurgen Klopp’s men despite their last two results.
Saunders said (as shared on the station’s Twitter account): “At 4-nil against Man City, being a manager myself, I would have thought “I’m going to take 4-nil. I’m not going to try and score.”
“You start thinking 10, and this might damage the players for the rest of the season. I’m going to play 4-5-1. I’m not going to try to score a goal and make it 4-1 and leave the back door open again, and another one and then another one.
“Before you know, their confidence is low and you can’t lift them back up. And that’s exactly what happened. They got beat seven. You can’t go man-to-man against the top teams.”
Not going to happen
Bielsa is not going to change his philosophy anytime soon, and while that will likely prove costly against Liverpool, fans will not expect anything to be different.
The Argentine does not have a plan B, and he will keep on sticking to his style, hoping it produces result on a consistent basis at Elland Road.
That has not happened so far since he guided Leeds back to the top-flight, and things have gone from bad to worse having been hit by a crippling absentee list.
Whether that would change should he find his team neck-deep in the relegation remains to be seen, but that is the last thing the Elland Road outfit want right now.
They are currently above Watford and Burnley in the table, but those two have games in hand and Leeds could be in the bottom three if the duo win their outstanding matches.
The Whites need to pick up points against Liverpool and Aston Villa ahead of 2022, and failure to do that could be disastrous.
In other Leeds United news, Whites chiefs recently jetted out of the UK for talks.