Roofe, records and the bucket: Every word from Marcelo Bielsa's post-Rotherham press conference
Here's the full transcript from the Argentine's post-match musings after his side made it four wins in a row
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ByJoe Mewis
18:19, 18 AUG 2018
Sport
Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa became the first man to claim victories in his first four games as Elland Road chief on Saturday afternoon after his side saw off Rotherham 2-0.
The Millesr held firm in the first-half, but goals from Luke Ayling and Kemar Roofe saw off Paul Warnes' side to make it three wins out of three in the Championship for Leeds this season and four on the spin in total.
Here's what the Argentine made of his side's performance in his post-match press conference.
Congratulations again. What did you say or do at half-time to get that performance?
The problems we had during the first half, were more linked to our own goal rather than the lack of concretising [sic] the offensive actions. The evaluation with the first half would have been better if the rival didn't have the offensive action they had. But anyway, we built too much from the back. We built on a lateral way, not on a vertical one. It was not easy for us to go to a defensive position to an offensive one.
Luke Ayling celebrates his first goal for the club
On the left we had less offensive actions. Our crosses were not very good, but in spite of all this we were faithful to our style.
In the second half the game was looking like the one of the first half, but the opponent didn’t have any offensive actions. Our opponent was a little bit more tired, so we had more spaces to attack.
The second goal was brilliant to watch - what have you done to make the players trust each other enough to make them pass like that in difficult areas?
I make efforts but I don’t see how we can link the goal of Kemar Roofe with me.
Is there a culture being laid down by you to allow players to play that way?
Unlike the two first games, today the game was a game that looked more like a Championship game.
As you saw, we could have ended the first half conceding goals. They had three clear moments where they could have scored a goal and these actions were provoked by the mistakes we made. We made some mistakes when we built from the back. The offensive transition of the opponent was faster than the time we took to go back and we had some disputed balls, which they got.
Leeds made it four from four
This indicates that the style has some difficulties to impose itself and that we have to respect the other ways of understanding the game of football because after the first half the rival could have ended with positive result for them, and a negative one for us.
Sometimes when you play respecting the style, sometimes you have positive consequences and sometimes negative one. I think we deserved to win the game.
Does it give you more pleasure in some ways to win a difficult game like this?
I would like to suffer as less as possible.
You're the first Leeds manager to win their first four games. Are records important to you?
You make conclusions only at the end when you see if you reach the goals or not.
Winning three games in a row, it’s the same from a mathematical point of view thing as winning three games, but not in a row.
Kemar Roofe looks a different player this season - is his confidence why he's improved?
Bielsa admitted Roofe is full of confident
It could be, because each striker when he scores goals he feels more powerful.
Will Bamford come in more regularly when the games ramp up?
Obviously when we have more games to play, we have more players who can play these games, that will have more time to play.
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You've used the same starting line-up in all three games this season, will there have to be changes for the two long away trips to Swansea and Norwich?
I can’t give you an answer now because we make these decisions on the day of the match when we evaluate the physical state of the player,
Is Roofe ok? He had an ice pack following the game...
Roofe netted a superb second goal
I haven’t received any information telling me we have a problem. It doesn’t mean that he doesn't have a problem. We'll see.
Are you surprised by the bucket's attention?
Bielsa was asked about the bucket again
I wish I could attract the attention on another way.
How important is momentum in football? Does this club have a lot of positive momentum right now?
I share your evaluation. These are segments of the competition and we shouldn’t make any definite conclusion.
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/roofe-records-bucket-every-word-15046412
