In the articles describing his football philosophy, it is stated that he spent almost the entire day watching match tapes, that he trained the ball players playing in different positions in separate sessions during training, and that he went to bed and woke up with football.
Shall we take a closer look at the coaching career of the Argentinian coach, which is full of ups and downs?
As the calendar shows July 21, 1955, he was a football genius who was born in Rosario, Argentina. The definition of genius is not mine, this is how Pep Guardiola defined Marcelo Bielsa, whom he calls the best of coaches. In fan folklore, a child usually follows in his father's footsteps, but he fell in love with Newell's Old Boys, a team in the Santa Fe district of the city, not Rosario Central, where his father was a supporter. Let's say hello to them too, while we're at it. They were founded on November 3, 1903, by Isaac Newell, one of the ancestors of Argentine football, and they have six championships to date. Football temples with a capacity of 38 thousand took their name from the football man who once wore the jersey and later served as the coach of the team: "Estadio Marcelo Bielsa"...
FOOTBALL CAREER
He was a tough defender who played for the Old Boys in the 1977-78 season. He left football at the age of 25. After receiving his physical education teaching diploma, the first team he coached was his old team. Newell's Old Boys worked wonders under his coaching between 1990-92. In the articles describing his football philosophy, it is stated that he spent almost the entire day watching match tapes, that he trained the players playing in different positions in separate sessions during training, that he analyzed matches for hours at press conferences, that he went to bed and woke up with football.
Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional football manager who is the current manager of the Uruguay national team. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential coaches of all time. Bielsa is a former player having played as a defender for Newell's Old Boys, Instituto and Argentino de Rosario.
Defender Roberto Ayala, who was the captain of the Argentine National Team, stated that during his time, they sometimes did not see any forwards in training and that he trained the attackers and midfielders at separate times. It is known that he often uses 3-3-3-1 in team formation, gives his team numerical superiority all over the field in this game order, and prefers players who run a lot.
British journalist John Carlin describes him as "the football man with the most extensive football knowledge on this planet." When he went to interview for the position of Leeds United manager, he surprised the Leeds United managers. In the meeting, he stated that he watched all the matches the team played in the previous season, the formations of the opponents, and Leeds United's shortcomings. Nicknamed 'El Loco' (Crazy Bielsa) in his country, Tim Rich tells his story in his book The Quality of Madness A Life of Marcelo Bielsa, which tells the life of the football genius: "In 1992, when he was coaching Newell's Old Boys, they played a cup match in which they were defeated. Afterward, about 20 infamous team fans raided his house in Rosario and asked the coach to go out and explain to them. Bielsa came out but with a grenade in his hand! "If you don't leave my house now, I will pull the pin," he said to the fans, who were confused as to what to do. Again, taken from Smith's book. One supporter recalled the incident in an interview with Kaiser magazine: "Madness was shining in his eyes, we thought he would come against us with a shotgun, not a grenade."
Among those they discovered is Mauricio Pochettino, who now coaches PSG. When he was discovered by Bielsa, who was only 14 years old, he went to the boy's house late at night with his assistant Jorge Griffa. You know, "You can tell who you're an artilleryman from your legs!" As they say, he asked permission from his family to see the legs of the child sleeping in his bed. “He is like my father,” says Pochettino when talking about him, and adds: “I owe everything I have learned about football to him.”
RECREATED LEEDS
When he was appointed manager of Leeds United on a two-year contract in the summer of 2018, the team of the North was a team in the lower tiers of the Championship, lamenting the past and longing for the bygone times. In just his first season, he transformed the team into a completely new team. He created a team that runs harder, fights as a team, and never loses its resistance. It was as if a magic hand touched the team that had been sleeping for so long, removed the dead soil from the team, and gave the Elland Road regulars the happiness they had not experienced for a long time. At the end of the 2019-20 season, they were promoted to the Premier League after a 16-year break. The fact that one of the main streets in the city center was named after him that summer is a sign of the love felt for his teachers. In his first season in the Premier League, his team finished ninth. The fact that they collected more points and scored more goals that season than any other team promoted to the Premier League in the last 20 years is a historical record.
Bielsa never criticized any referee, blamed VAR, or said anything negative about anyone during his Leeds United adventure. He paid the fine imposed on the club out of his own pocket after the assistant coach he sent to secretly monitor the opponent's training sessions was caught and "Spygate" broke out.
He was modest. He lived in the apartment above the coffee shop called Wetherby in the city, did not drive, and walked to matches and training. He attended the celebrations on the 100th anniversary of the club's founding in the Leeds United tracksuits he always wore, and his photo in his tracksuit among all the managers wearing ties and bow ties is worth seeing. He went to bed with football and woke up with it, he did not like defeat. During the European Championship held in England in 1996, Jorge Valdano was asked: "Have you ever thought about killing yourself after losing a match?" asked the crazy Argentinian.
'HE CHANGED EVERYTHING'
After resigning as coach of the Argentine National Team in 2004, he cut off access to telephone or television and lived in a monastery for three months in order to take stock of the possible past. They say some men are larger than life, Marcelo Bielsa was the man you wanted by your side when life got out of control. If a movie was ever made about Leeds United, it was the most spectacular scene of an unforgettable movie that could never be made again.
IT WON'T BE THE SAME BEFORE
I read in The Guardian newspaper around the time he was dismissed, that the teams he coached in Chile were described as "Bielsa's widows". You know, when one spouse dies after a long, loving relationship, life will never be the same for the other, leaving behind memories and a void that is impossible to fill.