Marcelo Bielsa wants more from Leeds despite starting reign with win

Posted Monday, August 06, 2018 by PA

Marcelo Bielsa knows there is still room for improvement from Leeds despite starting his reign as head coach with an emphatic 3-1 victory over Championship favourites Stoke.

Much was made of the former Argentina and Chile coach’s appointment at Elland Road in June as United bid to end their long wait for a return to the Premier League.

The 63-year-old is one of the world’s highly-regarded coaches with a philosophy that has received glowing praise from the likes of Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.

And Bielsa’s aggressive style of play was there for all to see in his first competitive game in charge as goals from Mateusz Klich, Pablo Hernandez and Liam Cooper caught Stoke cold.

But despite making a mockery of the bookmakers’ odds in their opener, Bielsa knows Leeds need to get even better if they are to sustain a promotion push this season.

Bielsa, speaking via a translator, said: “The physical effort of the players, the productivity of the players was pretty high.

“Our offensive actions were very good in some moments. It’s a dynamic team, an offensive team and it is a team that dares to play.

“My team took risks when they were moving the ball so these are the positive aspects. But we lacked a bit of experience at the end of the game.

“Our team has to improve. At the end of the game we didn’t try to link defence and attack playing on the ground.

“We challenged many times for the ball with the opponent and didn’t move the ball as well as we wanted.

“At the end of the game we could not get the ball back off the opponent in our half so they are all aspects we need to correct.”

Over 34,000 fans packed into Elland Road to see Bielsa’s debut in the dugout in English football.

“It was even bigger than I thought,” he added. “The fans were connected to the messages of the team in every second of the game.

“First of all I would like to thank the fans for their support and I hope our football will create positive actions from the fans.”

Gary Rowett knows it will take time for Stoke to adapt to the demands of the Championship following relegation from the Premier League last season.

The Potters lured Rowett from Derby and have backed him in the transfer market, bringing in players such as Tom Ince, Benik Afobe and James McClean for big money.

But Stoke were dominated by Leeds despite an Afobe penalty and, as a result, Rowett suffered his first defeat at Elland Road as a manager.

“It was a difficult game, we knew it was going to be difficult, but we made it more difficult with the mistakes we made,” he said.

“We didn’t do the basics right defensively. If you look at all three goals they were all poor reactions to losing the ball. That was a frustrating thing.

“We all knew a team coming down from the Premier League might find the Championship a different type of challenge. A couple of the players were surprised by the intensity.

“Some of the players did not do their jobs well enough and it was a tough afternoon for us.”