Bielsa: The Cunning Tactician.

Off the back of an impressive 2-1 away win at the Etihad stadium, a Marcelo Bielsa led  Leeds United sit tenth on the log with seven games to go. Surely they are here to stay. Here were Bielsa’s comments after the win “This sounds strange to say – it would have been fair if City had won but we deserved to win. The reason we deserved to win was because of the belief of the players. The character, the personality, the effort and the fortitude”

Despite going down to ten men, Bielsa still managed to show his genius with his team showing nothing short of a disciplined and united performance.

But who is this touchline enigma ?

Nicknamed El Loco Bielsa , translation for Madman Bielsa, he is of Argentine descents who had a short career as a player until the age of 25 when he retired to focus on coaching. Notable in his coaching CV is having managed the Argentina and Chile national teams, Athletic Bilbao, Marseille, Lazio, Lille and currently Leeds. Perhaps a hero of Elland Road for having accomplished the rare feat of leading them to promotion to the Premier League after a 16 year wait.

Throughout his career, one thing characteristic with the man is pushing his players to their physical and mental limits notable through his high intensity Leeds side in this season’s campaign. Not a single Premier League fan will not accept that Leeds are one of the sides who play entertaining football.

During his stint at Marseille, he got the nickname ‘le professeur’ hinting at how high his football intellect is.

We wait to see how good the sidelines-squatting man will come for Leeds and  for his not so much spoken about managing career but so far … without any doubt … so good. He is high up there with the best managers in the Prem.