By Craig Scott

14th Sep, 2021 | 8:10am

Leeds United fans cheered on Marcelo Bielsa despite 3-0 loss v Liverpool

The Athletic journalist Phil Hay noticed how Leeds United fans cheered on Marcelo Bielsa on Sunday despite the heavy defeat to Liverpool at Elland Road.

Mohamed Salah, Fabinho and Sadio Mane were all on the scoresheet as Jurgen Klopp’s side eased to a 3-0 victory in West Yorkshire and leaving the Whites just one point above the Premier League’s relegation zone.

Despite the winless start to the campaign, Hay noticed how fans backed Bielsa in the final stages of the game while some even stuck around to show their support for the manager in his post-match interviews.

“There were supportive chants for Bielsa from the crowd as the last few minutes petered out and applause for him from the gathering who stayed behind in the West Stand to watch his television interviews,” wrote Hay on The Athletic website.

“Nobody wants to think that this is more than a glitch because Bielsa has never had to deal with major glitches at Leeds, even in the 48 hours after that pivotal, and in some ways defining, evening at Nottingham Forest in February of last year.

“Newcastle away now looms, a visit to a club with one point and a league-high 12 goals against from their four games and all the buzz of a human resources training day.

“It’s a trip that should answer some questions.”

No need to panic

We’re without a win in our first four games but when you look at who we’ve played, the only game you can say we really should have won was the one against Burnley, which ended as a draw.

Other than that, we’ve played three of the four teams who are level on 10 points at the top of the Premier League, earning a point against one of them.

There’s no need to panic about our form or where our fortunes lie for this season because it’s still early doors and we have seen enough from this team to suggest we’ll be good enough to avoid relegation again.

Leeds need to settle down in the Premier League, show they’re capable of qualifying for Europe on a consistent basis and attracting better and better players.

There’s always going to be criticism but we need to take it on the chin and just ignore it. Sometimes Bielsa’s deserves criticism but most of the time, he doesn’t and people need to be more realistic about where we stand in the Premier League.

Manchester United and Liverpool are a world or two ahead of us right now and they will be for a long time.

We will get beaten heavily but guess what? We’ll dish out our own thrashing too and hopefully one is coming on Friday night at St James’ Park.

In other Leeds United news, Adrian Durham has blasted what has been said about Bielsa after the loss to Liverpool.