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Marcelo Bielsa’s first season at Elland Road may have been revolutionary, but it ultimately ended in failure as the Whites didn’t earn promotion to the Premier League.
For all the praise the Argentine has received in the past 12 months, the same mistakes that have plagued his entire career crept back in and cost his side a place in the top flight.
The former Marseille boss looks like he is set to overexert his team and run them into the ground again next term.
His new training ground renovations are set up to exhaust his players, which could bring about the same problems which cost the Whites promotion this season.
Bielsa’s problems
The 63-year-old has had a managerial career spanning nearly 30 years, but he still appears to fall into the same trap every single one of them.
Leeds fans won’t want to hear it but ‘Bielsa burnout’ is a thing, and it was evident towards the end of the this season.
So many muscle injuries left him with such a light squad towards the end of the campaign, and fatigued performances cost the Whites an automatic promotion spot as they dropped points to the likes of Wigan and Brentford.
His former players have commented on the fact that his techniques prove to be too physically demanding towards the back end of seasons, yet he still hasn’t adjusted.
Ander Herrera had complaints about the strenuousness of Bielsa’s system at Bilbao.
“I can’t lie to you, in the last months we couldn’t even move. We had five games to play in the league and were in two cup finals and I think we lost all of them,” the Spaniard said (via inews).
Doing it again
Albert Einstein once said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Even though it is one of the most famous quotes in history, it seems that Bielsa has never heard it.
The Argentine is nicknamed ‘El Loco’, and he is showing characteristics that fit the classic definition of an insane person.
Leeds players struggled at the end of last season because of how physically tolling their manager’s techniques were, but for some reason, the gaffer thinks the solution is to demand even more from his players.
He is having a new 1km running track installed at Thorp Arch as a part of his new contract as well as a new swimming pool. Although these new additions may sound like a step forward, it could be disastrous come next May when Bielsa has another lengthy injury list and a squad full of exhausted players.