MOT Tactics: The best half of football Leeds have played under Marcelo Bielsa
This article is part of a regular series from Leeds United Twitter account All Stats Aren’t We – the team also host a brilliant podcast that goes in-depth into the tactics of Marcelo Bielsa and a deeper look at the underlying stats
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Here’s a breakdown of our favourite play from the Arsenal v Leeds FA Cup clash.
It starts off with a freekick. Leeds would usually take it quickly but for some reason, Luke Ayling dallies a bit and is forced to go backwards.
The ball goes backwards towards Ben White and you can see Berardi already thinking about position with the ball imminently heading towards Illan Meslier.
If you can watch the whole sequence as a passage of play, notice how the Leeds players make it easier for each other by playing the ball into their teammate’s stronger foot and in space that they can run onto, again making the process simpler. Meslier takes one touch and passes.
Arsenal are pressing here. Lacazette has already closed down the keeper. Once the ball is released, he looks to close down the pass between the two centrebacks. Ozil presses the ball carrier and Pepe moves across to close down Douglas.
Realising Berardi is under pressure here, his teammates make it as easy as possible for him to find an out ball. Douglas is hugging the touchline. Ben White is pushing into the space behind Lacazette. Kalvin Phillips has lost Guendouzi and is in acres of space.
Pepe is in no-man’s land, caught between Phillips and Douglas. At this point, the ball has only progressed past one player in Arsenal’s press: Lacazette.
With Phillips free, Berardi finds him easily. Usually, Leeds would try to make a first-time pass here and look for the wide player (Douglas here) with the original passer pushing up into the space behind Phillips. In this case, Pepe is closing down the pass so Phillips drives the ball wide.
Look at Berardi already looking for that space behind Phillips. Ready to take the return ball from Douglas if necessary.
From this point, everything is a rotation or an interchange. Gotts and Douglas are ready to change positions so that Gotts is moving into space left by Douglas and Douglas ready to move into space left by Gotts. Berardi is also looking for the space vacated by Douglas.
Having played the pass to Douglas, Phillips is already looking to move his man and find space. Douglas plays the ball down the line to Phillips, bypassing the press of Pepe and Ozil and taking them out of the game.
Douglas then takes the space previously occupied by Phillips who, cutting back, finds him easily, Guendouzi is now out of contention and Gotts is in acres of space.
Douglas plays the ball quickly to Gotts and Xhaka is the final member of the Arsenal press bypassed. Lacazette, Ozil, Pepe, Guendouzi and Xhaka are taken out of contention in less than 10 seconds of play.
In behind Arsenal’s midfield, look at the space Gotts has to work with:
When the ball goes in to Alioski – who is, surprise, surprise, offside – Leeds have a perfect attacking scenario. Wide players outside of the Arsenal back four, Bamford finding the space between the CB and LB, Gotts driving for the space between the CBs, and Douglas looking for the overlap.
Leeds ran these sorts of routes all the way through the first half and Arsenal had very little in response. In the second half, the Arsenal back three became a back four and the space to the right of Sokratis was filled in, leaving Leeds without quite so much to plunder in the second half. This was, probably, the best half of football Leeds have played under Bielsa because it was basically a textbook example of the various movements and combinations he gets his players moving in.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay claims display of one man v Arsenal has changed Jan transfer hunt, one player now close