Marcelo Bielsa: Five points ahead of Arsenal

Marcelo Bielsa: Five points ahead of Arsenal

Quotes from Bielsa’s press conference.

Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa has held his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Arsenal at Elland Road.

Here we look at five points made by the Leeds United head coach ahead of the upcoming fixture.

On Pascal Struijk signing a new deal and his best position…

“I think the position of left centre back is the best suited to his characteristics. But a left centre back a lot of the time in the game becomes a left full-back and a lot of times he also has to play as a defensive mid. I think he can also play in these two positions.”

 

On the most important leadership trait in management…

“The most important thing is to convince without lying to the player. You can convince a player by lying to him but that doesn’t last for long. But if you can convince without lying, that’s something that the great managers are able to do.”

 

On if the international break has been beneficial on the training pitch…

“The international break doesn’t allow for the evolution of the team. It’s difficult to balance the training given the realities of everyone. The players who stay at Leeds can rest more and the ones who are with their national teams have less opportunity to do so. The collective work is impossible to do as not everyone is here, we have looked to correct individual errors and we have incorporated young players to work with the first team.”

 

On Kalvin Phillips being back and the improvements in his game in recent seasons…

“Phillips is a player who usually plays. The players who play regularly, it’s always important to count on them. The evolution of Phillips is a constant one, not due to what I am proposing but because he has a lot of capacity to analyse and criticise himself. He finds what he needs to improve and corrects it. And he does this by himself.”

 

On dementia after football…

“The ones that have to legislate for this issue are the authorities and the people who make the rules. If the science shows that there needs to be a change, then the authorities need to make this change because it can’t be left to the coaches to make this decision.”

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