If only Marcelo Bielsa had waited a couple more hours to speak.
Not that I’m blaming him for it, but maybe his outlook might have been a bit different if he knew the full details.
Speaking to the press ahead of today’s game at The Den, Bielsa talked about how going to places like Millwall will be tough and are a great sign of how competitive the championship is:
“It is going to be a very difficult and tough match. As you see in every match, even if there is more or less quality between the opponent, matches like this are hard in the Championship. In every stadium you have a different atmosphere, but it is not this fact which allows you to win or lose a match.”
However, that may not be the case when it comes to this game. As I’m sure you’re aware, Millwall boss Neil Harris stepped down from his role yesterday and that to me changed the entire complexity of the task at hand, because I personally think this is a blessing in disguise for Leeds United.
Whilst I suppose we do always need to be aware of ‘the new manager bounce’, I think that the timing of it will work in our favour. Harris stepping down so close to kick-off to me gives Leeds a huge advantage going into the game because of the distraction it will cause around the team, not only that, but we should be able to play off the inexperience of their caretaker manager Adam Barrett. Whilst there is already a pretty sizeable gulf between us in the league, this just acts as something else to widen the gap even further.
I spoke the other day about Bielsa’s lack of aggression when it came to killing off teams and getting our goal difference up. Well we have been presented with the perfect opportunity to do so today, given the unrest and distraction at Millwall over the past few days, I expect us to score at least three goals against them and really stamp our authority down.
What about you? Do you think that the change in manager is going to help Leeds United today? Or do you think that the change occurred so late that it won’t really make a difference?