Bielsa Press Conference: Pre-Boro

[Forshaw, Klich and Pablo doubts]



Marcelo is here...


Team news - will there be changes? Will Bamford and Phillips start?

Forshaw and Klich have a problem in the knee and Pablo has a problem in the groin
Bielsa's line-up is still to be finally decided. But Kalvin Phillips will start and Shackleton too.


What do the team need to do?

Regarding the offensive football, when we increase our efficiency our opportunities are bigger. Our offensive play is very important and the efficiency has an impact on the result. Regarding the defensive player, that has been the basis of our team so far, I have two points of view on it. The first thing is to nuetralise the attempts that the opponent builds and on this aspect the team has always been efficent and regular and the second aspect has to do with mistakes we make in our play now close to our goal and when we make them we make it easier for the opponent to build offensive actions and on this aspect we have lacked consistency - I don';t blame anyone for these kind of actioms because when you put the ball from the defence zone to the offence zone by building the attack, this is indispensible if we want to move the ball well, when you go througth this process you always have the possibility to make a mistake. I never tell our players to respect a certain style but that they can't make a mistake, our style include risk, the alternative path is to use 50-50 balls but I think is not convenient for us, it's better to be faithul to our style.


Are teams playing different against you now?

In order to play well and to dominate the opponent we don't rely on the changes that the opponent makes, we only rely on our efficency and the development of our style. When we play well we ca beat any model from the opponent and when we don't play well any model we are playing against is hard for us


Are the players responsible? An epic answer but basically saying no

I think that the last loss - when I make a decision I take the decision that I think are going to change the game and when this doesn't happen I can't say the players are responsible. In the last game we played we had some segment that would be worth looking at. When you evaluate the facts you can put aside the analysis, the analysis has to analyse two aspects - what you produce in the game and what you get from the production - in the last game, if we were as efficient as the opponent we would have won the game. If we hadn't contributed in the goals that the opponent scored we would have won the game by a large margin. When we build our offensive play, usually we don't rely on the mistakes of the opponent because when we attack and attack well it's not because the opponent makes mistakes. Usually we defend well and when we have to neutralise what the opponent is trying to build, usually we don't have any difficulties to do that and when we are too genrous with the opponent when he attacks, it's difficult for us to prevent the opponent from building any chance. In the last game, the opponent had six chances to score and scored three goals, and among the six chances to score that the opponent had, we had a contribution that made it easier for the opponent to attack. Apparently there is a spavce for crictism in this conclusion but I don't think so, I think that when the style demands that you move the ball from the goakkeeper towards your own boxm the possibility to lose the ball is there so the player is just faithful to the style that the head coach prposes to him so that's why I can'y say the players are responsible. There is an aspect where we are growing, is that the mental affect of accepting our own mistakes or not reaching what we are looking for, When we make mistakes and the opponent creates danger against, from a mental point of view our team feels it and when we play half an hour as we played the last game and we can;t score a goal it has a mental impact on our team too so the mental response of our players regrading the ups and downs of the game, this is the responsibility of the head coach. Take into consideration these counts - the last game was one of the games in which we ran the most, we clearly had the possession of the ball, we dominated the game too, we created more chances to score than the opponent, the indivisual performance of the team was good enough so what can kind of criticsm could I make to the players. I can't criticise anything, I don't have any basis to do it. I spent so much time on some answers because I don't want what I am saying coming out the wrong way.


[...]

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/middlesbrough-v-leeds-united-press-conference-live-blog-1-9580687