Given the success that Marcelo Bielsa has had at Leeds this season, it’s hard to pinpoint the mistakes that he has made.
Some may say that fielding a weakened team against Preston North End in the second round of the League Cup may have been. They lost 2-0 in that game, but their exit from that competition not only allowed the team to reduce their workload, but it allowed them to solely focus their attention on the Championship by removing the unnecessary distraction.
A graver mistake came a few months later on a November evening in Birmingham. High-flying Leeds travelled to a West Brom team that were going through a slight blip after a brilliant start to the season. Many fans and pundits saw a Leeds victory as a formality.
However, things did not go to plan for The Whites, as they were mauled 4-1 by Darren Moore’s Baggies. Bielsa said that he got it wrong that day and they deserved to lose.
A loss is a loss; they happen from time to time, but this loss lay the blueprint of how to beat Leeds. West Brom sat back and countered, and exploited Leeds’ errors in the midfield. Both the second and third goals in that match were from Leeds losing possession in their own half and they were duly punished.
The stats suggest that Leeds dominated the game with 72% possession, but they also only had three shots on target. West Brom were happy to wait for their chances, and they certainly did come.
Any manager will now look at how West Brom took Leeds apart and learn from it. What they will also see is Bielsa’s inability to do anything about it during that match. Whether the midfield was underresourced or not, Leeds looked vulnerable that day, and it may come back to haunt them.
