Leeds United have gotten to a strong start in the Championship season. They were the final team to lose their unbeaten record in the second tier, despite having to deal with a plethora of injuries. Behind it all is arguably one of the greatest managers in modern footballing history: Marcelo Bielsa. What are the tactics? Who are the players? Will it sustain? That's what I want to look at here.
Tactics and Manager:
Marcelo Bielsa is a major influence to many of the best managers currently at the helm of some of the best clubs in the world. Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino, Diego Simeone, and Jorge Sampaoli are just four of the best managers to credit Bielsa with tactical genius. Having managed Argentina, Chile, Atletico Bilbao, and Marseille and Lille for one season long stints. His love for the game has to make you smile, the fact that he refused an individual photo op to pick up his August Manager of the Year award, or that he made Leeds players spend three hours picking up trash at the training ground, it's not just odd 'quirks' but rather part of his philosophy of passion and hard work demanded from his players, reiterated back himself.
What about his tactics makes him so brilliant? First glance of a team sheet would reveal nothing groundbreaking, his team with Leeds has been listed exclusively as a 4-1-4-1. But a rudimentary knowledge of Bielsa would surely tell you that a back four is not his favored method of defense, that is the 3-3-1-3 formation. How it works is that Bielsa fields three central defenders in the back line with a holding midfielder, who has freedom himself to roam, and two wing backs directly in front of them. The one man is a more attacking midfielder who regularly joins the attack with the front three of a striker and two wing men. This can also look more like Bielsa, it has been claimed, will go down with his ship and tactical style of play, but even he is subject to mistakes. He took credit for the mistake he claimed cost his side the match against Birmingham, where he ended up fielding a back four and seeing his side concede twice in the first half hour. Ever the thinker, though, Bielsa made an early sub, moved to a back three, and outperformed Birmingham the remaining hour of the match.
A 3-3-1-3 may seem too attacking for some. And yes, it is very much an attacking formation, but Bielsa demands the best out of his players and it shows in their fitness. The 12-hour-days Bielsa subjected his Leeds side to in the preseason has put them into proper fitness to deal with all that he demands running his famed formation. With it comes a high attacking press to pressure defenders into mistakes. In their own attack, Leeds works themselves out of trouble with passing, refraining from long balls, and playing some beautiful open and attacking football. The passes may at times be risky, but the philosophy as a whole is high risk and high reward for Bielsa, and this season it has certainly resulted in high rewards to this point of the season.
The Team:
Leeds' heartbeat as a side, in general, is striker Kemar Roofe. The August Championship Player of the Month, Roofe is 25 and right about in the prime of his footballing career. A brilliant season last year put him on the map of English fans, and he has continued that on and into this season. Roofe is the perfect striker for a Bielsa system. Previously a winger, Roofe can drift into any space and find room to finish, usually with a sublime move. He possesses an incredibly high work rate and has solid pace, meaning he leads the Bielsa high press extremely well, wrecking havoc within his system. His injury in late-September showed just how important he is to this Leeds side as he was out of the side for their first loss. He has held off incoming striker Patrick Bamford, a summer signing from Middlesbrough, and Bielsa's decision to reward the longer-term member of this Leeds side has paid off. With both Roofe and Bamford out injured, the load of striker has fallen onto 19-year-old Tyler Roberts. Roberts bagged a brace against bottom-place Preston North End, and seems to be a player to watch in the future as Bielsa is able to mold the striker's game to his liking.
Of course, striker is not the only position in attack for a Bielsa side. Wingers Ezgjan Alioski and Pablo Hernandez have both been in great form for Leeds this season, and loanee Jack Harrison has filled in well for Hernandez while Spaniard has been injured. Many of the plaudits have gone to Hernandez for what has been an outstanding season where Bielsa called him "the player in our team who has had the biggest influence in our games so far" at one point. At 33, Hernandez, like James Milner with Liverpool, has only gotten better with his age. With an average of 2.8 key passes per game, his ball movement and passing skill unquestionably fits within the Bielsa system. Alioski has been greatly improved and the Macedonian held off Harrison in the start of the season. Now though, the two of them play on either wing with Hernandez's injury. Harrison is perhaps best known in the United States for actually being a collegiate player who spent a season with Wake Forest before becoming the number one overall pick in the MLS Draft to NYCFC, then moving on to Manchester City, who have now loaned him over to Leeds. The brilliant thing about the wingers in this formation is that if you take a look at an average positioning map (I use SofaScore for mine) you can see that the two wingers play at a level just as high as the striker in the Leeds system, put simply wide. This shows how high up Leeds' players will play both in attack and when pressing.
Another position that plays high up is the more attacking minded midfielder, or the '1' in the 3-3-1-3. For Leeds, that has been Samuel Saiz in the number ten role, playing brilliantly for the side. Saiz is indeed the number ten who generally plays right behind that attacking line of Leeds, but also not to be forgotten is the more free-range midfield, Mateusz Klich. Saiz and Klich are both very high energy midfielders who roam the field well and cover plenty of ground. Rumored to have been a target for Valencia this summer, Saiz operates almost in a way that makes a front four for Leeds' attack. Only one outfielder has featured in more minutes than Saiz. He has been a sort of glue that's linked play together very well, unsurprising given his technical ability. Klich, on the other hand, has been shining under Bielsa and become a quality signing and a steal of a signing. Once out of favor and loaned out last season to his previous club, Klich has found a brand new freedom in the heart of the pitch with three goals and two assists to go with his team leading 83.3% passing accuracy. Both players fit into different positions, but both provide the same sort of energy in the engine room that Leeds needs in order to have a successful system.
The defensive line-up, as a whole, is where things get a bit more complex, and even more broadly flexible for Bielsa's Leeds side. First off is the matter 22-year-old hometown boy Kalvin Phillips. He lines up generally as a holding midfielder, but when Leeds need someone to drop deeper into a center back position with the two out-and-out center backs, that man is Phillips. Phillips has thrived in this deeper role and has earned plenty of praise from Leeds supporters and a more national audience alike. It is not so much that Phillips drops all the way into a center back role, but rather both center backs employed by Bielsa in his preferred formation must play up the pitch in a higher role. Phillips is incredibly adept at defending wherever he is put on the pitch, though, and he has been absolutely outstanding under Bielsa.
In defense itself, you have two wing backs who have really starred this season. Barry Douglas is the one signing (from Wolves) that Leeds snagged this summer and has immediately made his way into the starting eleven. On the right, Luke Ayling has been the lone player for the side in the outfield to see every single minute of the Championship season through eleven matches. Full backs are vital in the modern game, but they're absolutely essential in the Bielsa formation. Douglas gets forward with ease and can track back very well, as well. Ayling, on the other wing, does the best of his work in the defensive spectrum and proves to be a very capable defender in one-on-one situations. As a whole, Ayling does everything very well, whether that's dueling in the air, organizing the back line, or even playing a bit of center back when needed, and is a true leader for this Leeds side. Neither man would jump out to a Premier League fan on a team sheet if they saw Leeds up against them, but the full back pairing have been one of the top, if not the top, duo in the Championship. Leeds got Douglas for an absolute bargain and he has paid dividends immediately while the Ayling transfer almost immediately proved to be highway robbery of Bristol last season. Leeds fans will hope that continues to be the case.
Finally, we have the center backs and keeper. First off, keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell is a 21-year-old youth player who has come up through the ranks (after coming from Middlesbrough at a young age) and looked self-assured and confident between the posts. Yes, he has made mistakes, including giving up a long-range effort to Che Adams of Birmingham in their sole loss thus far, but for the most part his standards have been high. Jamal Blackman, on loan from Chelsea, is available for Leeds as back-up, but Peacock-Farrell has been steady and seems set to be Northern Ireland's keeper of the future.
Next up, the center backs. Liam Cooper and Pontus Jansson are both 27 and have been in stellar form for Leeds. Cooper has been a mainstay in the Leeds starting eleven for the vast majority of the season and serves as the club captain. Bielsa described him as a "nice person" but Cooper is also a fantastic player. Averaging six aerial victories per game through eleven matches, and 62 passes for 81% accuracy, Cooper's ability in multiple facets of the game are what keeps him so essential to this side. Jansson, on the other hand, needed an unfortunate injury to Gaetano Berardi to allow him a full chance in the starting eleven, but he has taken his chance and run with it. He too has 6 aerial duels per game to his name and offers another physical presence in defense standing at 6'4". A former Championship Team of the Year man in 2016-17, Leeds turned down ten million pounds from FC Krasnador to keep him with the club, and it has paid off. The two men are smart in defense and in possession and offer the ability to threaten not just on set pieces (though they are valuable on them) but also playing the ball forward on the ground. They help make this team click, and I would say that at the moment they are both undroppable for Bielsa.
Sustainability:
The key question with Leeds now is can they hold this form throughout an entire season. They are coming off a stretch of some dropped points, but a 1-0 victory over Hull on match day eleven thanks to a brilliant strike from Tyler Roberts has made sure that not too much momentum drops. Players like Roberts and Harrison have done very well in the absence of Hernandez, Roofe, and Bamford to continue performing at the speed necessary for Leeds to put themselves in position for promotion.
The question remains, though, if it can last. Leeds' lack of depth does scare me a bit, and the talk of another attacking midfielder and perhaps a more physical striker in January seems to be well-guided. They are a good side currently, but with Bielsa's tendency to stick with the same eleven thus far this season, the likelihood of players getting worn down in a league like the Championship increases greatly. Tyler Roberts even battled fitness before the Hull match, which would have left Leeds in a bit of a crisis. Likewise, Saiz leaving has been a rumor over the summer and depth at his position really should be added, not just Izzy Brown, the Chelsea loanee. Mbaye Diagne, the 6'3" physical striker currently residing in Turkey, would be in intriguing fit as well for Bielsa and his system which really amplifies a physical number nine's skill.
Do I think Leeds can sustain this? Yes. I think with last season's Wolves' triumph we have seen that sides who play very nice football do stand a chance in the Championship. A side like Leeds is doing something teams in the Championship haven't seen and they have the quality to do so. Compare them to Aston Villa, who have the likes of Tammy Abraham, Yannick Bolasie, Jack Grealish, Conor Hourihane, and plenty more, and sit 12th and have just sacked Steve Bruce who had no clue how to manage his talented attacking-themed side. Bielsa has thrown himself into his Leeds side and it has shown. The players are playing to their strengths and Bielsa knows exactly what they are. Looking at sides like them and even West Brom, who are playing some fantastic free-flowing football with Jay Rodriguez and Dwight Gayle leading the line, Harvey Barnes in brilliant form behind them, and Matt Phillips and new boy Bakary Sako on the wings, there's some fantastic play going on in the second tier. But Leeds still have work to do. And plenty of fans will be watching with baited breath.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty of Liverpool FC and other related football coverage, including live Tweets during the matches, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Michigan basketball coverage!
Tactics and Manager:
Marcelo Bielsa is a major influence to many of the best managers currently at the helm of some of the best clubs in the world. Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino, Diego Simeone, and Jorge Sampaoli are just four of the best managers to credit Bielsa with tactical genius. Having managed Argentina, Chile, Atletico Bilbao, and Marseille and Lille for one season long stints. His love for the game has to make you smile, the fact that he refused an individual photo op to pick up his August Manager of the Year award, or that he made Leeds players spend three hours picking up trash at the training ground, it's not just odd 'quirks' but rather part of his philosophy of passion and hard work demanded from his players, reiterated back himself.
What about his tactics makes him so brilliant? First glance of a team sheet would reveal nothing groundbreaking, his team with Leeds has been listed exclusively as a 4-1-4-1. But a rudimentary knowledge of Bielsa would surely tell you that a back four is not his favored method of defense, that is the 3-3-1-3 formation. How it works is that Bielsa fields three central defenders in the back line with a holding midfielder, who has freedom himself to roam, and two wing backs directly in front of them. The one man is a more attacking midfielder who regularly joins the attack with the front three of a striker and two wing men. This can also look more like Bielsa, it has been claimed, will go down with his ship and tactical style of play, but even he is subject to mistakes. He took credit for the mistake he claimed cost his side the match against Birmingham, where he ended up fielding a back four and seeing his side concede twice in the first half hour. Ever the thinker, though, Bielsa made an early sub, moved to a back three, and outperformed Birmingham the remaining hour of the match.
A 3-3-1-3 may seem too attacking for some. And yes, it is very much an attacking formation, but Bielsa demands the best out of his players and it shows in their fitness. The 12-hour-days Bielsa subjected his Leeds side to in the preseason has put them into proper fitness to deal with all that he demands running his famed formation. With it comes a high attacking press to pressure defenders into mistakes. In their own attack, Leeds works themselves out of trouble with passing, refraining from long balls, and playing some beautiful open and attacking football. The passes may at times be risky, but the philosophy as a whole is high risk and high reward for Bielsa, and this season it has certainly resulted in high rewards to this point of the season.
The Team:
Leeds' heartbeat as a side, in general, is striker Kemar Roofe. The August Championship Player of the Month, Roofe is 25 and right about in the prime of his footballing career. A brilliant season last year put him on the map of English fans, and he has continued that on and into this season. Roofe is the perfect striker for a Bielsa system. Previously a winger, Roofe can drift into any space and find room to finish, usually with a sublime move. He possesses an incredibly high work rate and has solid pace, meaning he leads the Bielsa high press extremely well, wrecking havoc within his system. His injury in late-September showed just how important he is to this Leeds side as he was out of the side for their first loss. He has held off incoming striker Patrick Bamford, a summer signing from Middlesbrough, and Bielsa's decision to reward the longer-term member of this Leeds side has paid off. With both Roofe and Bamford out injured, the load of striker has fallen onto 19-year-old Tyler Roberts. Roberts bagged a brace against bottom-place Preston North End, and seems to be a player to watch in the future as Bielsa is able to mold the striker's game to his liking.
Of course, striker is not the only position in attack for a Bielsa side. Wingers Ezgjan Alioski and Pablo Hernandez have both been in great form for Leeds this season, and loanee Jack Harrison has filled in well for Hernandez while Spaniard has been injured. Many of the plaudits have gone to Hernandez for what has been an outstanding season where Bielsa called him "the player in our team who has had the biggest influence in our games so far" at one point. At 33, Hernandez, like James Milner with Liverpool, has only gotten better with his age. With an average of 2.8 key passes per game, his ball movement and passing skill unquestionably fits within the Bielsa system. Alioski has been greatly improved and the Macedonian held off Harrison in the start of the season. Now though, the two of them play on either wing with Hernandez's injury. Harrison is perhaps best known in the United States for actually being a collegiate player who spent a season with Wake Forest before becoming the number one overall pick in the MLS Draft to NYCFC, then moving on to Manchester City, who have now loaned him over to Leeds. The brilliant thing about the wingers in this formation is that if you take a look at an average positioning map (I use SofaScore for mine) you can see that the two wingers play at a level just as high as the striker in the Leeds system, put simply wide. This shows how high up Leeds' players will play both in attack and when pressing.
Another position that plays high up is the more attacking minded midfielder, or the '1' in the 3-3-1-3. For Leeds, that has been Samuel Saiz in the number ten role, playing brilliantly for the side. Saiz is indeed the number ten who generally plays right behind that attacking line of Leeds, but also not to be forgotten is the more free-range midfield, Mateusz Klich. Saiz and Klich are both very high energy midfielders who roam the field well and cover plenty of ground. Rumored to have been a target for Valencia this summer, Saiz operates almost in a way that makes a front four for Leeds' attack. Only one outfielder has featured in more minutes than Saiz. He has been a sort of glue that's linked play together very well, unsurprising given his technical ability. Klich, on the other hand, has been shining under Bielsa and become a quality signing and a steal of a signing. Once out of favor and loaned out last season to his previous club, Klich has found a brand new freedom in the heart of the pitch with three goals and two assists to go with his team leading 83.3% passing accuracy. Both players fit into different positions, but both provide the same sort of energy in the engine room that Leeds needs in order to have a successful system.
The defensive line-up, as a whole, is where things get a bit more complex, and even more broadly flexible for Bielsa's Leeds side. First off is the matter 22-year-old hometown boy Kalvin Phillips. He lines up generally as a holding midfielder, but when Leeds need someone to drop deeper into a center back position with the two out-and-out center backs, that man is Phillips. Phillips has thrived in this deeper role and has earned plenty of praise from Leeds supporters and a more national audience alike. It is not so much that Phillips drops all the way into a center back role, but rather both center backs employed by Bielsa in his preferred formation must play up the pitch in a higher role. Phillips is incredibly adept at defending wherever he is put on the pitch, though, and he has been absolutely outstanding under Bielsa.
In defense itself, you have two wing backs who have really starred this season. Barry Douglas is the one signing (from Wolves) that Leeds snagged this summer and has immediately made his way into the starting eleven. On the right, Luke Ayling has been the lone player for the side in the outfield to see every single minute of the Championship season through eleven matches. Full backs are vital in the modern game, but they're absolutely essential in the Bielsa formation. Douglas gets forward with ease and can track back very well, as well. Ayling, on the other wing, does the best of his work in the defensive spectrum and proves to be a very capable defender in one-on-one situations. As a whole, Ayling does everything very well, whether that's dueling in the air, organizing the back line, or even playing a bit of center back when needed, and is a true leader for this Leeds side. Neither man would jump out to a Premier League fan on a team sheet if they saw Leeds up against them, but the full back pairing have been one of the top, if not the top, duo in the Championship. Leeds got Douglas for an absolute bargain and he has paid dividends immediately while the Ayling transfer almost immediately proved to be highway robbery of Bristol last season. Leeds fans will hope that continues to be the case.
Finally, we have the center backs and keeper. First off, keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell is a 21-year-old youth player who has come up through the ranks (after coming from Middlesbrough at a young age) and looked self-assured and confident between the posts. Yes, he has made mistakes, including giving up a long-range effort to Che Adams of Birmingham in their sole loss thus far, but for the most part his standards have been high. Jamal Blackman, on loan from Chelsea, is available for Leeds as back-up, but Peacock-Farrell has been steady and seems set to be Northern Ireland's keeper of the future.
Next up, the center backs. Liam Cooper and Pontus Jansson are both 27 and have been in stellar form for Leeds. Cooper has been a mainstay in the Leeds starting eleven for the vast majority of the season and serves as the club captain. Bielsa described him as a "nice person" but Cooper is also a fantastic player. Averaging six aerial victories per game through eleven matches, and 62 passes for 81% accuracy, Cooper's ability in multiple facets of the game are what keeps him so essential to this side. Jansson, on the other hand, needed an unfortunate injury to Gaetano Berardi to allow him a full chance in the starting eleven, but he has taken his chance and run with it. He too has 6 aerial duels per game to his name and offers another physical presence in defense standing at 6'4". A former Championship Team of the Year man in 2016-17, Leeds turned down ten million pounds from FC Krasnador to keep him with the club, and it has paid off. The two men are smart in defense and in possession and offer the ability to threaten not just on set pieces (though they are valuable on them) but also playing the ball forward on the ground. They help make this team click, and I would say that at the moment they are both undroppable for Bielsa.
Sustainability:
The key question with Leeds now is can they hold this form throughout an entire season. They are coming off a stretch of some dropped points, but a 1-0 victory over Hull on match day eleven thanks to a brilliant strike from Tyler Roberts has made sure that not too much momentum drops. Players like Roberts and Harrison have done very well in the absence of Hernandez, Roofe, and Bamford to continue performing at the speed necessary for Leeds to put themselves in position for promotion.
The question remains, though, if it can last. Leeds' lack of depth does scare me a bit, and the talk of another attacking midfielder and perhaps a more physical striker in January seems to be well-guided. They are a good side currently, but with Bielsa's tendency to stick with the same eleven thus far this season, the likelihood of players getting worn down in a league like the Championship increases greatly. Tyler Roberts even battled fitness before the Hull match, which would have left Leeds in a bit of a crisis. Likewise, Saiz leaving has been a rumor over the summer and depth at his position really should be added, not just Izzy Brown, the Chelsea loanee. Mbaye Diagne, the 6'3" physical striker currently residing in Turkey, would be in intriguing fit as well for Bielsa and his system which really amplifies a physical number nine's skill.
Do I think Leeds can sustain this? Yes. I think with last season's Wolves' triumph we have seen that sides who play very nice football do stand a chance in the Championship. A side like Leeds is doing something teams in the Championship haven't seen and they have the quality to do so. Compare them to Aston Villa, who have the likes of Tammy Abraham, Yannick Bolasie, Jack Grealish, Conor Hourihane, and plenty more, and sit 12th and have just sacked Steve Bruce who had no clue how to manage his talented attacking-themed side. Bielsa has thrown himself into his Leeds side and it has shown. The players are playing to their strengths and Bielsa knows exactly what they are. Looking at sides like them and even West Brom, who are playing some fantastic free-flowing football with Jay Rodriguez and Dwight Gayle leading the line, Harvey Barnes in brilliant form behind them, and Matt Phillips and new boy Bakary Sako on the wings, there's some fantastic play going on in the second tier. But Leeds still have work to do. And plenty of fans will be watching with baited breath.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty of Liverpool FC and other related football coverage, including live Tweets during the matches, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Michigan basketball coverage!
Comments
Post a Comment