Bielsa Press Conference: Pre-Birmingham

Marcelo has arrived...


Bielsa on importance of home form

"Every time a professional team plays the victory is an obligation. I don't think it would have a special impact if we win."


Bielsa on Birmingham

"It's a team that conceded very few goals. By itself it is a difficulty. The few goals they conceded doesn't correspond with their ranking. So the fact that they concede a few goals means it will be difficult."


Bielsa on Monk

"He was the head coach of a team that finished 7th. So it's a fact that it is important for any head coach. He was the head coach of several teams so he is experienced."


Bielsa on Roberts

"When a number nine scores it always gives him confidence. In both games he played he was a link to the box. He didn't score against Millwall but against Preston he scored twice. The important thing is he creates chances to score and then when he scores more goals he will become an important player."


Bielsa on whether Leeds are exceeding expectations

"A club with such a history as Leeds has to have the hope to go to the Premiership."


Bielsa on whether Birmingham will be defensive

"I can't tell you in advance. One of the features of Birmingham is they don't concede many goals."


Bielsa on injuries

"No, the injured players won't be able to play against Birmingham this weekend."


Bielsa on whether he's been inspired by other sports

"When you watch other sports you make associations with situations. Basketball, hockey and rugby but I don't make any lasting parallels between the two sports."


Bielsa on his tactics getting across

"Apart from the features of our opponents our team was faithful to our style. The assimilation of a style is not only about the method. More important is the influence of each player regarding his willingness to assimilate the new style. To convince the player to adopt a new style is more important."


Bielsa on squad attitude and application

"Frankly I admire the professionalism of the English player. I'm sure this is not a new thing for English people. You already know that English football players are very serious. Players from Great Britain are very serious. So it stimulates you to work with these kind of players. It's also important to work in ideal conditions because we had a long pre-season. The fact that we had a long period thanks to the World Cup meant we could work and make decisions without being in a hurry. Another thing that is important is that this club has 15 players and the group of 5/6 youngsters and if I had to make an evaluation of them I wouldn't want to change the players I have. Very few teams can say what I am saying. I can tell you that I have 12/13/14/15 players I would not change. And also we have 5/6 players with possibilities so it indicates that this club has a good football health. Broadly speaking the players are young."


Bielsa on how well Leeds have started

"I have an advantage and not every head coach has it. During ten years of my career I worked as a head coach of national teams. This allows you to develop mechanisms that allows you to transmit ideas in a quick way because when you're with a national team you only have one or two days to prepare and one game a month. Not every head coach has this situation and you can't learn how to solve problems you don't face. I think that I have that advantage of finding fast solutions. We also have to take into account we had a pre-season which lasted seven weeks which is a long time. We also had one month to analyse the team and we also had a good basis which we didn't have to bring in many players."


Bielsa on Leeds being as close to what he wants

"This is unstable. Our performance against Millwall, Swansea and Middlesbrough was not the same as against Preston... the games against Millwall and Middlesbrough were tough games for us. That's why we can't say our team is a strong team because we need to do things before saying we're a strong team and we haven't done them so far. The Championship is a long process."


Bielsa on statistics

"Actually we have at our disposal more data than what we can work on. We receive a lot. With this kind of data we can build conclusions and reach the idea. At the end of the day head coaches give value to the data that confirms what we saw during the game. We give importance to the data that strengthens our thoughts and opinions on the game. It's good to trust what you see with your own eyes. Even if it is important to recognise when you see mistakes. Being a head coach of footballers it's more linked with taking the right decisions rather than making corrections."


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