Speaking on the Wrighty’s House podcast, Ian Wright has claimed that Marcelo Bielsa will have instructed Ezgjan Alioski to get under Nicolas Pepe’s skin during Leeds’ clash with Arsenal on Saturday.
Bielsa has always been known as the master of preparation, and Wright believes that he will have known that Pepe’s state of mind was vulnerable and that he would have been easy to wind up.
“The guy obviously knows everything about him because you can tell. Bielsa will have given Alioski everything single thing about that guy, and then probably you throw into the mix his state of mind right now,” Wright said.
“Then that happens, Alioski does exactly what he does and then Pepe plays poorly, he gets sent off. Mikel probably gave him a rocket at half-time and then he comes then he comes out and he does that.”
If this is true, then Bielsa has been very clever.
Pepe was there to be wound up and his headbutt gave Leeds a massive advantage on Sunday.
Unfortunately for Bielsa, the Whites couldn’t make the most of the man advantage as they drew 0-0.
Of course, we don’t know whether or not Wright is on the money with this claim, but it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if he was.
Bielsa leaves no stone unturned when preparing for Leeds’ matches, and he may have known that Alioski roughing up Pepe would have garnered a reaction, be it physically or psychologically.
Gary Neville stated that he saw Alioski barging Pepe before the red card, and it’s hard to imagine that he Macedonian wasn’t doing that intentionally.
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