Leeds United: Marcelo Bielsa hasn't changed but something has as promotion chase continues to splutter

Defeat at QPR was their sixth defeat in 11 in all competitions. From their 10 last games they have taken just 13 points. Whatever the distance covered stats might say, this whole enterprise is running out of steam

Bielsa was not pleased after seeing his side drop yet more points in the race for promotion (Getty Images)

Marcelo Bielsa scoffed before he even needed the question translated. Stood on the side of the pitch at Loftus Road, surrounded by journalists and cameras, he heard the accusation that his Leeds United team were running out of energy. And it was enough to set him off.

“Your question does not have any basis,” Bielsa said, to this reporter from The Independent, before tearing apart our assessment that Leeds were running out of steam at this most crucial stage of the season.

“Because if you watch the game, what you can say is this team has too much energy. And you are asking me if the team lost energy. What our team has shown in every game is that we have an excess of energy. And it is clear that you don’t know what you’re talking about, because if there is something that this team doesn’t lack, it is energy. If you have a look at the figures, you can say that if there is a problem that this team doesn’t have, it is a lack of energy. We have problems, as all of the teams do. And it is not an opinion, because you just have to look at the figures and draw your own conclusions.”

It was a comprehensive rebuttal, delivered one sentence at a time by interpreter Salim Lamrani. And, at least in those terms, Bielsa was probably right. Because if we have learned anything about him in 2019 it is that he does like to have all the information at his fingertips.

But clearly something has changed or been lost at Leeds since the turn of their year. This was their sixth defeat in 11 in all competitions. From their 10 last Championship games – since Boxing Day – they have taken just 13 points. Which is nobody’s idea of promotion form. Whatever the distance covered statistics might say, this whole enterprise is running out of steam.

And of all those recent defeats, this one, away to Queens Park Rangers, might be the most painful. Because it was a game in hand to put them back on top of the table. Because it was against a QPR side with almost nothing to play for. And because it came just three days before a far harder game against West Bromwich Albion, which Leeds now have no option but to win. After this game, after this press conference, Bielsa was photographed slumped in the Loftus Road tunnel, looking like a man in painful contemplation of what had gone wrong and how to fix it.

Bielsa’s own explanation for why Leeds had lost was that they could not “elaborate attacks”, and there was clearly a lack of quality and precision in the final third. With Kemar Roofe still recovering from a knee injury, the team desperately needs a cutting edge up front. Patrick Bamford made just his fourth Championship start of the season, and it showed. He missed their three best chances, sliding agonisingly short of one low Pablo Hernandez cross, as Leeds failed to take advantage of their strong first half.

With Jack Clarke still missing after being taken ill earlier this month, Leeds looked short of pace and creativity in wide areas. Jack Harrison was not so much of a threat and Hernandez cannot do it all by himself at the age of 33. Especially after the surprise departure of Samu Saiz back to Spain. It felt like a game where they desperately lacked Daniel James, who was so close to joining before Swansea City pulled the plug.

Clearly Bielsa has done brilliantly to get Leeds this far. They have less attacking firepower and experience than their promotion rivals, as they may well find out against West Brom on Friday. And their thin squad has been cut to pieces by injuries. At no point this season has Bielsa been able to put out a full strength side. Last night Izzy Brown made his Leeds debut, finally ready six months after joining on loan.

Leeds were once again not at their best at Loftus Road (Getty Images)

But even though Bielsa argued that this dip in results is not to do with a lack of energy, it must be to do with the diminishing physical resources at his disposal. And even if Leeds are still running as much ever, as Bielsa insisted, they are clearly not doing it as well as before. Tiredness can show in different ways, not just in being slow but also in being sloppy. And Leeds’ bluntness in the box last night, or the form of Luke Ayling or Mateusz Klich, or even the way they let Massimo Luongo run through them for the goal, all point to a legginess and weariness among the squad. Even if the stats are as good as ever.

And when it comes to Bielsa teams, this pattern – early burst, new year fatigue, eventual collapse – should be no surprise. It has happened enough times before, and of course he knows that better than anyone.

Remember Bielsa’s briefly thrilling Marseille team. They wowed France for the first half of the 2014-15 season, running everyone off the pitch with their inventive pressing football and 3-3-3-1 system. They went top very quickly and stayed there until Christmas. But they ran out of legs too, fading in February, desperate in April, finishing the season in fourth. Bielsa resigned after the first game of the following season.

Or Bielsa’s Athletic Club side. They were a joy to watch for most of his debut 2011-12 season, demolishing Manchester United home and away in the last 16 of the Europa League. But they tailed off in La Liga, finishing 10th, before losing the Europa League final 3-0 to Atletico Madrid and the Copa del Rey final 3-0 to Barcelona weeks later. Bielsa’s second season there never got off the ground, with the players as tired mentally as physically, a common issue with his work. The team finished 12th and he left the club at the end of it.

Or the team that started it all, Newell’s Old Boys, back in the early 1990s. They were brilliant, winning the Apertura title in 1990, but soon enough they were exhausted. They only won nine games in all of 1991. “It is a method that provokes a certain level of tiredness,” said Newell’s veteran Juan Manuel Llop in Jonathan Wilson’s Angels with Dirty Faces. “Not just physical tiredness, but also mental and emotional tiredness, because the competition level is so high that it is difficult to keep up with it after a period of time. Not all human beings are the same, or think the same, or react in the same way. The style of Bielsa, his training sessions, demand continuity and it’s difficult.”