Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United are top of the Championship table heading into the first international break of the 2017/18 season.
We are just six games into the new Championship season and Leeds United fans are dreaming of a long-awaited return to the promised land under Marcelo Bielsa.
But it is worth remembering that things looked similarly rosy this time last year when Thomas Christiansen was in the Elland Road dugout. With four wins and two draws, Leeds gained 14 points from their first six league matches under Christiansen – the same amount that they have now with Bielsa in charge.
Clearly, a lot can change in the remaining 40 Championship matchdays, particularly as Bielsa’s famously high intensity tactics have a history of resulting in fatigue in the latter stages of a league season.
And Stephen Warnock, the former Leeds captain, has sent a warning to the former Argentina and Chile boss on the back of the Whites’ sluggish performance in last Friday’s goalless draw with Middlesbrough.
“It was one of those with Bielsa where you didn’t know which way it was going to go, whether Bielsa was going to be a genius or not! Especially with the euphoria that surrounded him,” Warnock, who played for Leeds between 2013 and 2015, told The Express.
“I think they started off very well. But then the way he wants to play is going to take its toll on the players.
“We’re just seeing now, even early on, when it has to be Saturday-Tuesday it’s very, very difficult to replicate that form with the size of the squad that they’ve got.”
Bielsa’s Marseille led the Ligue 1 table at Christmas midway through the 2014/15 campaign. But, as tiredness set in, they lost seven times after the winter break and finished a distant fourth.
So the 63-year-old may have to make full use of his squad throughout a gruelling Championship campaign.
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