MOT View: What Bielsa did to get Leeds out of their slump was unusual but absolutely brilliant
Marcelo Bielsa is well known for his attention to detail at Leeds United.
His want to leave no stone unturned got him in trouble last season as Spy Gate erupted.
He insists his players train harder than probably any others in the Championship and has a rigid system that he sticks to when others might experiment.
However, one thing he isn’t known for is being emotional or getting close to players.
When a clip of Bielsa running the length of the training pitch to hug Patrick Bamford after he scored a worldie went viral, it was because it was so unusual.
However, Bielsa obviously knew he had to do something different after a terrible run of form threatened to derail Leeds’ season.
Leeds lost 2-0 to Nottingham Forest and Luke Ayling gave a deflated interview afterwards, saying the dressing room was down.
If anything called for an intervention this was it. And Bielsa did something that is very out of character.
As detailed by Athletic journalist Phil Hay, Bielsa decided that something very different was required post-match.
“What happened next was pivotal,” Hay wrote. “Bielsa, who puts his players through extended — sometimes torturous — video analysis sessions after every fixture abandoned that policy for one day only and gave them a rousing speech instead, drawing a round of applause from everyone in the room when it finished.”
Since then, Leeds have taken 13 points from 15, dropping two only away at Brentford in a game that no one was expecting to get anything from.
The last four games have seen four clean sheets and the form hit the peak on Saturday in a 4-0 demolition job on Hull.
A neutral observer might look at Bielsa and see a brilliant manager who isn’t in tune with his emotions.
However, this gives the lie to that. Bielsa is a brilliant tactician but he’s a wonderful human being too.
He’s regularly seen taking time out to interact with young fans and the dressing room intervention could go down as the pivotal moment if Leeds go on to win promotion this season.
That some fans were criticising Bielsa during the bad run is almost too much to believe. Thankfully, even the most outspoken keyboard warriors are back on side now.
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