Middlesbrough pre match press conference.
Marcelo og Pontus.
11:55
Bielsa due up in five minutes
Not long until the head coach is here.
12:01
He's here...
Here’s Bielsa.
Let’s see what he has to say…
12:01
First question: After last night's defeat, is the perfect game to bounce back?
There is no link between the two games without taking into account the defeat yesterday.
12:02
It won't affect the team's momentum, then?
We hope no. And we work for it.
12:02
Last game before the break - how important to be top?
For us, the important thing is to win the game on Friday.
We don’t take into account the table at this moment of the competition.
12:07
How long before the table is meaningful?
The table is always important for us. What I wanted to say is the coming game on Friday is important by itself.
It’s not important because we can be first. It’s important by the game itself.
When I explain that the table is always important for us and at the same time I say we don’t look at the table so it looks like a contradiction, what I’m trying to explain the important thing is to finish the Championship in the best possible conditions or position.
If we take each segment of the competition and that’s what you propose me to do with your question and if we make segmented conclusions we will be making a mistake.
This conclusion I see in the media and the press taking the example of last season at the middle of the competition Leeds was third or fourth of the table and at the end they finished 13th. So there’s a reference to this situation. The content of the reference, the conclusion is not to get too enthusiastic right now and the idea is to keep doing what we doing until we reach our goal.
We need to observe what is happening right now and this is expressed in two questions.
The first one is the defeat yesterday will have an impact for this coming game against Middlesborough and the value we give to the position in the table of Leeds right now.
And as the goals are definitive ones, not partial ones I try to make a conclusion taking into account this reality.
12:08
What are you expecting from Boro? Will set pieces be key?
The aerial game is a feature of the Premiership and it has a lot of influence so I guess we’ll see again this feature during Friday’s game.
12:09
Any new loan arrivals before Friday?
I can’t give you a positive and answer and I can’t give you a negative one.
12:10
How did Marcelo react with the players after Preston? Was he angry with the performance?
No. I’m never angry at the players. I understand, I analyse, I try to help, I try to give solutions and I try to give value to the performance.
12:15
Is Marcelo's reaction to a defeat similar to a win or draw with the players?
When I lose I’m sad. And when I win I feel happy. With relations with the players, the previous answer I gave you is my conclusion with this.
In the game of yesterday we had three groups of players.
Young players, very young players. Experienced players. And players who are getting involved with the first team.
One thing that this loss produces is we lose a space in a competition. We lose the possibility to use this competition for the new players and we also lose the possibility to give experience to the young players.
During the game of yesterday we had the starting XI was very different from the one against Norwich. The team needs more than one player for each position. What we need is to have two players for each position. And we develop this process with training sessions an competitions. If you have a look at the team who played the most, the players are those who started the pre-season with us and players who have experience inside the institution. To add players to this basis we integrate footballers and we try to promote young players.
Broadly speaking we had 18 players and we added six players. These changes has an impact on those who are playing.
And we were developing this process between the Championship and the cup. And that’s why about the defeat I also regret that we lost because we lost this opportunity.
12:16
How much of a challenge will it be to give those players more minutes?
We have many resources. Training sessions each week, the under-23 competition. The needs we have when you have an injured player, a suspended player or a player who is not playing that well. So I think we’ll have opportunities for these players.
12:17
Where will the threat come from against Boro?
It’s a team which occupies the first place, the first ranking. They represent a very well worked style of play. the head coach is a recognised one, an experienced one. And we have a challenge between two teams with the same number of points and the two teams who occupy the first and second ranking. SO these are all the ingredients you can add to this game.
12:18
Update on Forshaw and Cooper
Cooper has a possibility to play on Friday.
And Adam Forshaw will be available after the international break.
12:19
How much of a boost would Cooper's return be?
If he comes back it will be a plus for the team. He’s our captain and he’s a courageous players, an important player and if he can’t play we have other options for the position and these options have the same qualities.
12:20
On Pontus' performances
He was one of the two best players in the last two games. He didn’t do the work preseason and so far he has played three games.
And in these three games he played at a level close to his potential.
12:21
Would Marcelo like one or two more in before the loan window closes?
It’s a possibility that if we get a new player it’s because they will have a plus fir the team. And if nobody comes we have enough players.
12:23
Is this the biggest test so far?
It’s difficult to make comparisons.
Because when we played against Stoke or Swansea we had an opposition, an important team against us because they were a couple of months ago Premiership teams. It’s an important rival, opponent. It’s going to be a very difficult, tough game.
But I don’t want to put classification between teams. But for me the next game is always the most difficult game. And in this case, the particular case we have many reasons to think that this coming game is the hardest one.
12:24
Shackleton and Pearce's fitness?
For Pearce it’s not very important. He just receive a kick on his leg. Very painful, but just a kick on the leg.
For Shackleton it’s an ankle problem, but we’ll see how this evolves. He’s a very tough, courageous player so these aspects of his personality will make it easier for him to come back.
I don’t know either for him or Pearce on Friday.
12:25
Will you get Bamford, Forshaw, Harrison's advice on Boro?
If it’s necessary, of course I will listen to their ppint of view. But the style of Middlesborough is well known. Because the head coach of MIddlesborough is a legend of English football.
12:27
Is the game a clash of styles?
It would be pretentious from my part to say that.
To think that our style is one that cold be opposed to another one. To represent a style you need more continuity in the footballistic expressions.
And to recognise one style you need to go through a process of demonstration that shows that you are faithful to the style you are playing. This is more of a reality of Boro than Leeds. We can’t say so far that we have a particular style.
12:42
As a tactical great, is style important or is it just about winning?
It’s hard to answer this kind of question. But I’m going to try to answer it.
But please, admit that I can have a lack of facility.
The resources you use to overcome the opponent you never win playing bad. You never win if you don’t attack.
You never win if you don’t take into account the use of the ball.
You can avoid using these resources for a short period so you make confusion when you present as an alternative when we win in a certain style. When you say win, it doesn’t matter how you win you should tell us, what do you mean by whatever the meaning is to win?
<For example, Sir Alex Ferguson said winning was more important than style. As an intellectual, does Marecelo believe winning is ultimately the most important thing?>
Ferguson was a huge head coach. Never won without style. It would be unfair that the public think that the question is winning with style or winning without style?
It’s winning with one style or winning with another style. And what we are comparing right now is taste, sensibilities, feelings.
If we only had two opposite ways, if football was reduced to Guardiola style or Mourinho style, both style propose a path to reach success.
You wouldn’t have any head coach who would say that the style is above success. What he’d rather say is with this style I’m in better conditions to reach success.
From my humble point of view I think there’s a difference between how you presented the question and how I modified your question.
<Tell him I appreciated that?
If it was like that I’m not convinced I did what I just said. If these two different ways to see the same problem, the public opinion should know that we don’t have one style to win or anything to win. We have two different ways to win.
<That was my point - you can play in different ways and still win>
I think we should oblige the public to recognise what kind of football they like because if the public does not recognise the type of football they like, they will only be attracted by success.
And when you only value the success and don’t take into account the resources need in getting the success you lose the sensibility and the vales disappear to you.
I’m not saying you have good values and bad values. I’m just saying you have different values. As football has a lot of influence to tell to the public that the only thing that matters is success you don’t give importance to what football means to the people.
<The beauty, the game...>
England is known by world football because they don’t like people who cheat. Am I right?
<Yes>
That’s what I wanted to say.
12:44
Any departures before Friday?
I don’t know!
And that’s Marcelo done.
12:45
Here's Pontus
I’ve seen both sides of Leeds. Last year was a disaster.
When I arrived back in the summer it felt like I’ve signed for a new club.
12:46
What's it like to work under Bielsa?
Long days. A lot of meeting. Long, hard training. High intensity. Lots of sprints.
I’m quite used to that from my time in Italy.
You have to concentrate every moment of the day.
12:47
Why no Leeds salutes with fans this season?
I don’t want to take too much, don’t want to be the main man.
When you get older you see it from a different perspective.
Maybe if we get to the Premier League I will do it last game!
I want to be a good team-mate and a good leader for this team
12:48
On the World Cup
I feel older, grown up a lot. It was a good experience. I was a leader from the side of the pitch, It was important there. I’m getting older!
12:49
How pleased with his start?
I worked hard in the summer, every day.
Marcelo wanted me to have three weeks off but I only took one off. I trained with my old team Malmo to stay in shape.
I want to be a leader and help my team in every moment.
I’ve lost 4kg.
12:50
How is the buzz around the place?
We’re first, playing really good. Changed a lot.
We run a lot, even me as a defender.
We played good and deserve to be there.
12:51
On promotion chances
We’ve started well, but Marcelo doesn’t want us to relax. We had a long meeting after the Swansea game. We had a one-and-a-half hour meeting afterwards.
The Premier League is a dream and I want to do it with Leeds still.
12:52
On the fans
This is my second home. I love every minute of playing for Leeds United.
Some people like and some hate me. It’s no difference for me.
12:53
On last season's defeat at Boro
It’s maybe a little bit of motivation, but it’s going to be two different teams.
They still have the same coach, Pulis likes a compact team, we have to switch on and prepare.
12:53
Nights like Friday are why you've joined Leeds?
Yeah, it’s going to be a crazy atmosphere at Elland Road.
12:54
On the Championship
It’s a top ten league in the world. A lot of players turn down moves to come here.
Every game is tough, you have to be on your toes for 46 games.
12:59
That's all for now
Pontus’ final question was about how impressed he has been by Kalvin Phillips’ performances this season.
We’ll be bringing you more from the pair shortly, so stay tuned.
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/marcelo-bielsa-pontus-jansson-conference-15084569
