What’s it like to play against a Marcelo Bielsa team?

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Huddersfield Town manager Danny Cowley’s assessment of his side’s defeat to Leeds United in March 2020 was simple. “If you’re going to be outclassed, then be outclassed by a genius.”

The genius behind it was Marcelo Bielsa. He was in the midst of orchestrating Leeds’ first promotion to the Premier League in 16 years. The Argentine is still loved for his achievements at Elland Road, but admiration for him extends far beyond West Yorkshire – he is revered by fans, players and a generation of fellow managers alike for his work at Athletic Bilbao, Newell’s Old Boys, Argentina, Chile and now Uruguay.

His teams have a pattern in their style of play: one of intense pressing, hard work and rotations. “Bielsaball” is notoriously difficult to play at national or international level. The teams at this summer’s Copa America now have the challenge of stopping one of the greatest tactical minds of his generation.

After two wins in the group stage and an impressive first year of results under Bielsa, Uruguay face the USMNT. So what’s in store for Gregg Berhalter players?

“Every team has passing patterns and so on, but their desire to win the ball is scary,” says Paul Warne, who met Bielsa’s Leeds while managing Rotherham United in 2018-19. “The biggest thing about (Bielsa’s) Leeds was their work off the ball. People talk all the time about how good they were on the ball – and they don’t say otherwise – but the reason they controlled possession so much is because they press you so hard out of possession.

“You get the ball back and they’re right on you, forcing a foul. Soon it starts to get in your head and it tires you. If the ball goes to your full-back, they either have to be sure to pick the perfect pass there and then, or cut it back and they’re on top of you again. It gets exhausting. You don’t have time to breathe. Even worse is that you are in the dugout and you have Bielsa next to you, sitting on the bucket like the calmest man in the stadium. You wouldn’t see anyone else doing that. He reminds me of a rugby coach.

Uruguay played in Bielsa’s usual style (Chris Arjoon/AFP via Getty Images)

“By Saturday, his work was done. Everything has been so meticulously prepared throughout the week that he has the confidence to sit there and let his team play. It’s like going on X-Factor and being backstage next to Elvis Presley with his collar up. You’re wearing jeans and a white t-shirt and psychologically you fear the worst. It sounds awful, but it’s also the reality.”

Bielsa has long been famous for preferring to sit on a bucket or a water cooler in the technical area, thoughtfully watching his team in action. It adds to its mystical quality.

As former Tottenham and Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino, who played for Bielsa at Newell’s Old Boys and for Argentina, said when he faced Leeds in the Premier League: “I met him in Spain. Playing against his teams is always a nice challenge. For me, he is a person I will always admire. People call him “El Loco Bielsa”, but to me he’s not crazy at all. To me, he is a genius. A person with charisma and a very different personality to us regular coaches, and that makes him special.”

Pochettino is part of a generation of self-proclaimed coaching disciples of Bielsa. His new tactic is unmatched. The side he created that won the championship title has never seen the division before.

Bielsa watching Uruguay play while sitting on his cooler (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

“I knew how intense they were – that’s what they set out to be. There was no time on the ball for the opposition,” says former defender Luke Chambers, who played against Leeds in 2018-19 while captaining Ipswich Town. “Everyone was really fit, strong and athletic. He had those players so well trained that at that level it was hard to stop them. They had pace in wide areas, physicality through the middle of the team and goals from everywhere. It set them up to be an all-out attack and they didn’t really come out of it, especially when they were promoted.

“You could tell he was on another level, the fact he got his team to play like that in the Championship was one of the first teams like that I’ve seen with players coming in and roll or fullbacks becoming wings. . If you installed two in the front, it would go with three in the back. They would always have an outlet for how you set up, but they never really focused that much on you as a team. If we played one up front, they would have a back four, it would be two against one in the middle and they would always have the confidence to switch.

“Bielsa has always had his players know specific roles in each position. When you look at some of the players they’ve had there and what they’ve gone on to do, he makes his players better. We tried to override certain areas but it would change so quickly in game. He sat there and you can see he’s chasing so hard, he’s so far ahead of people tactically that he can make a change before he has to.”

Ipswich lost once and won once, with the win coming on the final day of the season as Leeds crashed out of the play-offs in 2018-19. In the first leg at Elland Road, they targeted Leeds with intense pressing out wide but suffered with transitions through the middle. It’s a problem other teams faced when trying to play Bielsa at his own game, with former Luton Town manager Graeme Jones describing Leeds as “leaping teams at will” when playing them in 2019- 20.

“The way they ran and the speed at which they played was a huge problem for us that night,” says Alex Pearce, who played for Millwall in a 3-2 defeat to Leeds in 2020. Leeds were in down 2-0 at halftime. but scored three after the break to secure victory.

“Attacks keep coming when they have their tails up and as they keep coming, they force you to make mistakes. You lose sight of this player or forget to mark that player. You get distracted for a second and the ball is in the net. I wouldn’t put Leeds on the level of Wolves (who won the title in 2018) but that game at Elland Road is one of the strongest performances I’ve faced in the Championship and I’ve played a lot of games in this league.”

Bielsa’s playing patterns and attention to detail – right down to rigorously testing his players – have remained consistent throughout his career. The goals scored by his teams in Leeds, Chile and Uruguay can easily be mapped onto each other with incredible similarity. There is a manner and speed at which players move the ball down the field from front to back.

Millwall’s Molumby reacts as Bielsa’s Leeds beat them 3-2 in 2020 (George Wood/Getty Images)

“I know players who have played for him and they say how demanding he is,” Chambers says. “That can only last so long in a team environment, but it probably suits an international environment because he only sees his players sporadically. You can get that buy-in for two or three years at a club, but if things go a bit wrong and you keep asking the same group of players to do the same things, it can be a struggle. It might suit shorter-term spells at clubs, but it’s an intensity that can work at international level.”

As Uruguay take off under Bielsa, the intense methods and tactical intelligence that made him a defining coach of his generation seem to be working again. When opposition managers think they know how to exploit his teams’ weaknesses, Bielsa has an answer. Rotherham de la Warne tried to send crosses from the right wing to the near post but no luck.

“Here’s the problem,” says Warne. “First of all, you have to get into a good position on the right. Then you need your striker to make a good run off the ball. Then the delivery has to be perfect and the finishing touch has to be perfect. So while you have that idea, in practice Bielsa’s team makes it so hard to pull it off. I felt we competed well in both matches. But I also understand exactly why we lost.”

It is not rare to play against Bielsa, lose and respect that loss because of his tactical prowess. It could be an awkward night for Berhalter and the USA if Uruguay sing from the Bielsa anthem.

(Top photo: Getty Images)