Marcelo Bielsa’s post-match comments after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool revealed that he had recognised an issue in the way in which his team played, one that allowed the Reds to profit from.
Marcelo Bielsa said: “When you lose the ball before you finalise an action, first of all it decreases the amount of attacks and also what conditioned the first half was what would happen after we lost the ball. Two things happened to us, combined complicated the performance, losing the ball before finalising the attacks, these losses could see them take the ball for advantageous situations for themselves. That’s why I said what Klopp planned favoured his forwards shining, and what I proposed did not give the same options to our men.”
In other words, Leeds were turning the ball over too often and allowing Liverpool to attack them regularly because of this. Liverpool’s pressing was part of this but also the Whites made a rod for their own backs by being extremely direct with the ball rather than looking to slow the game down and hold the ball for any stage. This could have provided some respite from what at some stages felt like relentless waves of Liverpool attacks.
