Marcelo Bielsa draws line under Leeds United debate

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa has outlined that he doesn’t intend to repeat his naming of the starting 11 during his press conferences after it caused a lot of discussion before the West Ham meeting at the weekend.

Bielsa’s time at Elland Road has been overwhelmingly positive for the club and neutrals who have had the chance to witness his management style in the English game after years on the continent and elsewhere.

His methods are unique, though, with his enigmatic style not well understood by a lot of pundits and fellow managers in the game.

We saw it frequently in the Championship that Bielsa wasn’t shy to open up to the press about his tactics before games, often outlining exactly how he operates.

The most notable of these was when his hour-long ‘Spygate’ presentation spelled out how he looks to analyse each team and approach each game.

On top of that, Bielsa has been known to name his starting lineup for games when delivering his team news, something that caused a stir last week in the build-up to the West Ham clash on Friday night.

Leeds lost the game 2-1 as defensive depth was stretched to the limit and taken advantage of from two set-pieces by the Hammers.

With Newcastle United the next team to make the trip to West Yorkshire, Bielsa spoke in his press conference about the topic of naming his lineup.

“Nothing about it was incorrect. It would be incorrect if we thought that knowing the XI of the opponent gives you an important advantage. For me, it doesn’t give you an important advantage.” He said to LeedsLive.

“From now on to avoid any backlash I will not continue to give answers on the players who can or cannot play at the weekend.

“Imagine that the manager of West Ham says I anticipated the team due to vanity. For me to name the team ahead of time is something I shouldn’t do. Anyhow, the formation, the XI I gave last week without knowingly giving it, because they asked me about a certain position in particular and I spontaneously gave the XI with the player playing in that position.”