Something needs to change at Leeds United.
The Whites have won just one of their last nine league games, and their grip on the automatic promotion spots is loosening each week.
The Yorkshire club are now only three points ahead of Fulham, and with their next three matches coming against sides in the top six, they’re in danger of dropping out of the top two.
United are still dominating games, they created more chances than Wigan and dominated the ball, but it just wasn’t happening for them, so what’s the problem?
It seems as though the pressure is getting to the players.
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A few weeks ago Phil Hay gave a worrying insight into the dressing room’s feeling towards promotion, and Bielsa himself admitted in a press conference that his players may have been struggling mentally in their game against Millwall, citing a confusing first five minutes.
The Argentine needs to be a motivator more than a tactician in the coming weeks, and that may be a task that he simply isn’t up to.
The 64-year-old may have been hailed as the best coach in the world, but he’s never been able to orchestrate any real success at club level, failing to win a single major trophy in his career.
Not only that, but his man-management skills don’t seem to be there, despite being such a great tactician.
Frank Leboeuf criticised Bielsa when speaking to RMC Sport (Via Goal), as he recalled an occasion where he completely blanked his captain at Marseille:
“He’s somebody I don’t like. I don’t like his life philosophy. I don’t like how he manages a group and for me he’s shown nothing, To take the lift in the morning with your captain, to not say hello and to not even look at him, there’s a bit of a problem.”
Bielsa’s tactics haven’t steered Leeds wrong very often over the past 18 months, but the players now seemingly need motivating, and the Argentine may not be able to get the squad’s mindset back on track as his people skills have previously come under fire.
Hopefully the Argentine can prove us and Leboeuf wrong, but his trophy haul suggests that he can’t get teams over the line.
In other news, Phil Hay has struggled to explain one baffling Bielsa decision.