Marcelo Bielsa Leeds
Marcelo, at the end of the game you took a long pause. What were you feeling at that point and how did you feel about the game?
The games always generate a lot of tension. When it finishes it’s a moment to relax. The performance was a deserved victory. The game was very disputed. It was not an easy game to play for us. We had many situations where we could have created danger, but despite that, we did not manage to create that many. Of the chances we did obtain there wasn’t a great percentage we could transform into a goal.
Just looking back at the game, at one point you were speaking to Jack Harrison at length. At that point in the game what wasn’t happening for you because you were giving him some very clear instructions?
He’s a player who has very important conditions. He’s a clear exponent of the type of centre-backs Dutch football creates. It’s not difficult for him to play in front of the centre-backs as a defensive midfielder. He did so very well against Wolverhampton. When he plays on the left side of a back three he has to go out wide and does not suffer. He has a great aerial game and manages his right foot very well. That’s so many good things in just one player.
Can you talk us through the various options you tried up front today and which one you felt worked best?
I imagined a number nine like the wingers. To find spaces in between the three centre-backs, to the sides of the right centre-back. To the sides of the number five because the number 44 played to the mark of Raphinha. I had the impression James, as well as Harrison, could find passes in behind like the ones I could imagine. After the importance of their right-back, the number two, made us docify the relationship first with James and then with James.
What does it say about your team that they produced that response to Norwich’s goal and does that give you confidence?
They scored so quickly. Due to the resource in which they obtained that goal we should interpret it as an avoidable error. The efficiency in the offensive game has big power over the games.
Can you sum up how important that win was today to comeback from that Norwich goal?
The question of where the team’s season is going are always present. Of course, they are more justified when put together negative results. But it is part of our job to manage these moments, maintain the calm and to transmit confidence and security in the unstable moments.”
Any information any Jamie Shackleton’s injury?
No, I haven’t received any information just yet.
Where do you think the confidence of the players is at?
The doubt in the footballer is linked with the possibility of making a mistake. That’s to say the players always live with the uncertainty of making an error or doing something right. That’s belonging to any creative game. How those moments of weakness are overcome in the difficulties that are just above the level required to resolve them. When you go resolving situations that are slightly above what you think you are capable of, it increases self-esteem, and this is a process the players know happens. They know how to go through it. Within my possibilities, I try to go with them through the unstable moments of being a human being.
