Gary Neville told Sky Sports during their live coverage of Leeds’ defeat against Manchester United that Marcelo Bielsa and his team ‘haven’t got it in them’ to play defensive football.
Leeds suffered a heavy defeat against their bitter rivals on Sunday, with Scott McTominay scoring two goals inside three minutes to punish this gung-ho Yorkshire side.
Later on, in the first half, Leeds went onto concede another two goals, as their 100 miles per hour style simply didn’t work on the Old Trafford stage. Dan James and Bruno Fernandes then added to that misery after the break.
During his commentary stint for Sky, Neville shared his thoughts on Leeds’ style and how it’s ‘impossible’ for the coach, players and the club to change.
“Well, there is no nuance to this Leeds style,” said Neville. “You were thinking before the game, ‘could they be a little bit more defensive?’ Knowing that Manchester United struggle against teams that sit off them at Old Trafford and counter-attacked.
“They haven’t got it in them. Their coach doesn’t have it in them. The players have been drilled to play this way. Day in and day out. It’s impossible to change.
“But it’s going to bring some suffering today.”
It’s this very same mindset that has made Bielsa such a well-liked and well-regarded coach around the world, the likes of Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino are proof of that because of what they think of him.
Not only that, it’s this very same style that earned Leeds promotion back to the promised land after 17 years, so it’s something that Bielsa won’t change, regardless.
Whilst this defeat will hurt Leeds, they will still have the belief that they can cause this type of damage to others, it’s just a case of taking it themselves once in a while.
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