MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Leeds United news here, transfer rumours, club affairs, players, fans, etc.
Specific match discussions should go in the category below.
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by SCOTTISH LEEDS »

When did the 6-8 games for Brown start? He's played that many already

No he hasn’t played six to eight games.

He started to play, he got injured. Now he plays his second game.

<So it starts from the hamstring injury?>

Anyway as I see you’re worried about the situation, the previous answer you can apply to ant decision I take. I have to chose and I’m never sure that I’m taking the right decision.

And many times I doubt that I took the right decision.

Every time you ask me about the presence or absence of a player I will answer the same. I chose the player who offered the best options to resolve the game at that moment.

Any more on Dallas' injury?

He has a problem with his foot. It’s a new problem, linked to the bone stress and for now he will need complete rest for ten days.

And then with the evolution we will see how long he needs.

Why will Phillips miss out?

I just answered that question.

Did I express myself not well enough?

I had to chose between Jansson and Phillips, and Cooper and Phillips, and Forshaw and Philips. I had to chose between those three players.

Question from German journalist - what he thinks of English football compared with elsewhere?

I prefer not to make comparisons because I have worked in several places. I can give you my opinion on English football. I don’t think I will say something new because everything has been said on English football. In England, the desire to win is stronger than the fact we don’t want to lose. In England: win before loss(?).

This tells a lot about how the English culture sees the game. This is what makes the specificity of English football around the world. Another thing seen in France and Germany too, it’s a structure project to develop young players.

Football is undergoing a huge crisis because we have more and more spectators, which allows the economic prosperity of football, but it’s an everyday horror to get good players.

In this sense, these three countries, Germany, France and England have been at the vanguard.

What is satisfying about working in England?

The players still have a link with the amateur aspect of the game and this is very important, this has a lot of value because they constantly receive messages telling them to get rid of this amateur aspect, but to be a good professional you need to be a great amateur too.

The team of Leeds has many amateur values in the behaviour of the players.

What do you mean by amateur values?

It means I don’t play football for money, but I play because I love football.

Long season - Leeds and Norwich aggressive - hard to keep up intensity at the end?

The answer only has value if we can verify it. All I can say is ‘yes we will.’ We know the truth only in May.

Not considering changing style for fatigue?

Absolutely not. I’m going to tell you why.

It’s so hard to draw the style of a team and it takes so long. At the same time it’s so unstable, but when you think about switching the style, if you could change the style, it means it’s because the style is not strong enough.

If you can change something easily, it means it was not hard to build it. I never think about changing the style. I’d rather focus on problems in what we’re doing.

With the constant problems with changing plans, especially when losing, for me, these solicitations deserve this response: the response is you have to correct what is not done well.

Sixty-three now - called El Loco - honour or insult?

First of all, I can’t say I’m successful. I’d rather say the opposite.

One of the things you hear the most when people talk about me, is the lack of trophies. You can verify this. When you’ve been working in football for such a long time, and when you’ve been in for such a long time, given the opinion enough factual elements to draw your own conclusions about whether it’s positive or negative.

I’m sure you think you think it’s a positive one.
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by maltrain »

"The players still have a link with the amateur aspect of the game and this is very important, this has a lot of value because they constantly receive messages telling them to get rid of this amateur aspect, but to be a good professional you need to be a great amateur too.

The team of Leeds has many amateur values in the behaviour of the players.

What do you mean by amateur values?

It means I don’t play football for money, but I play because I love football".


For this kind of thinking is why I love Marcelo Bielsa, follow him wherever he goes and why I think is the best manager ever. And I'm chilean, not argentine...
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by SCOTTISH LEEDS »

How do you feel about your side's performance today?

We can’t say the performance was satisfactory. We couldn’t take advantage of the positive moments we had in the game.

As we lost the ball in front of our box we made it easier for the opponent to attack.

It was very hard for us to recover the ball after the first half an hour.

After we finished the attacks the opponent kept the ball. Usually it’s easier for us to recover the ball and today it was very hard to recover the ball. It’s an addition of these three aspects.

We couldn’t take advantage of positive moments, we made mistakes we could have avoided and it was the third aspect: it was hard for us to neutralise the skill of the opponent to use the ball.

The combination of these three aspects made it hard for us to outwork the opponent.

Pablo Hernandez appeared to struggle in the first half of the game, was that a key factor in the defeat?

No, because the first half was generally a positive one. In the first half Tyler Roberts had positive influence in attack.

And I thought that we could influence of the play on the sides. That's why I decided to switch Jack Clarke for Harrison and Alioski for Pablo.
Patrick Bamford came on today - what did you make of his performance? I know he scored, but does he look to be as sharp as you want him to be now?

When a number nine scores, it’s always a positive thing.

And it was very hard for any player to play well in the second half.

That's four defeats in six league games. Do you feel the performances reflect the results and are you concerned?

If we take into account the fact that we were leading the Championship, to lose four games out of six, it’s something that we can’t ignore.

In every game we have difficulties to score goals.

And the fact that we usually created many chances and we scored few goals, our average regarding the chances we have to score and actually the number of goals we score is worse than the teams who occupy the bottom of the table.

The leading teams, they need two or three chances to score one goal.

And the team at the bottom of the table usually needs four chances to score one goal.

And for us we need five chances to score one goal so it’s worse than the teams at the bottom of the table.

But we were strong because we had a good defensive side, but we have lost that.

We made avoidable mistakes and usually the consequences of these mistakes are goals.

It’s hard for us to score goals and at the same time we have lost our defensive strength.

You see that in the final results.

Is the number of chances you are taking to score something you can solve as a coach or is that down to the players?

In everything that happens to the team, the head coach is responsible. All the negative things that happen to the team are the responsibility of the head coach.

We have good players and we have skillful players.

And I have to find the right combinations in order to find the good way to attack. And as you can see in the last games I haven’t made the right choice because many players play in the offensive positions and in spite of the different combinations we still have the same problems. We need many chances to score a goal.

So this is the responsibility of the head coach, not of the players. And it’s the same thing regarding the defensive strength that we have lost. In order to defend well we have to combine safe recovery of the ball and then make the link between the defense and the attack without risking any dangerous loss. In an important segment of this competition we recovered the ball well and could play out well, too. And we have lost this feature and I think I am deeply responsible for it.

What was your reaction to the Dan James transfer that didn't go through? Were you disappointed about that?

No, not disappointed. He was coming to the team to be a possibility of the side. And as I’ve said several times, with Alioski, Pablo, Clarke, Harrison, all the players who play on the sides, we can find the right solution.

I can’t deny the fact he would have been another option for our offensive play, but I don’t see this as an obstacle for us.
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by SCOTTISH LEEDS »

Team news - will you look to make changes? Bamford, Phillips?

Forshaw and Klich have a problem with the knee, Pablo with the groin.. They will not play.

On attacking struggles

My answer to this question, I don’t have any problem answering again, the only thing when I repeat is that I feel it’s not very convenient for the listeners.

Regarding the offensive football, when we increase our efficient, our opportunities are bigger.

Our offensive play is very important and the inefficiency has an impact.

Regarding the offensive play that has been the basis of our team so far, I have two points of view on it.

The first thing is to neutralise the attempts that the opponent builds and on this aspect the team has always been efficient and regular. The second aspect has to do with mistakes we make playing out close to our goal and when we make them we make it easier for our opponent to build offensive action.

And on this aspect we have lacked consistency. Anyways, I don’t blame anyone for these kind of actions because when you put the ball from defence to attack by building the attack, it is indispensable if we want to attack well, when you go through this process you always have the possibility to make a mistake.

I never tell our players that they have to respect a certain style, but they cannot make mistakes. Our style includes a risk. The alternative path is to use 50/50 balls but I think this is not convenient for us, it’s better to be faithful to our style.

Are teams changing their style to face Leeds?

In order to play well and dominate the opponent we don’t rely on the changes that the opponent makes.

We only rely on our efficiency and the development of our style.

When we play well we can beat any model from the opponent. And when we don’t play well, any model we are playing against is hard for us.

You took responsibility for the defeat - but what have your players said to you about responsibility?

I think that the last loss, when I make a decision, I take decisions that change the game, but when I see it was not the right decision, I cannot say it is the responsibility of the players.

In the last game we played we had some segments that would be worth looking at.

When you evaluate the facts, you can put aside the analysis.

The analysis has to analysis two aspects: What you produce in a game and what you get from the production.

In the last game if we were as efficient as the opponent we would have won the game.

If we hadn’t contributed in the goals the opponent scored we would have won the game by a large margin.

When we build our offensive play usually we don’t reply on the mistakes of the opponent. Because when we attack and when we attack well it’s not because the opponent made mistakes.

Usually we defend well and when we have to neutralise the opponent, usually we don’t have difficulties to do that.

And when we are too generous with the opponent when he attacks it’s difficult for us to prevent the opponent from building any chances.

In the last game the opponent had six chances to score and scored three goals.

And among the six chances to score they had we had a contribution that made it easier for the opponent to attack.

Apparently there is a space for criticism in this, but I don’t think so. I think when the style demands that when you move the ball from your keeper to the other box the possibility of losing the ball is inherent to this game., SO the player is faithful to the style the head coach proposes.

That’s why I can’t say the players are responsible..

There is an aspect where we’re growing. It’s the mental fact of accepting our own mistakes or not reaching what we’re looking for.

When we create mistakes, from a mental point of view our team feels it. And when we play 30 mins as we played the last game and we don’t score, it has a mental impact on our team.

So the mental response of our players regarding the ups and downs of the game, this is the responsibility of the head coach.

Take into account these facts.

The last game was one of the games we ran the most. We had the possession of the ball,clearly. We dominated the game, too. We created more chances to score than the opponent. The individual performance of the team was good enough.

So what kind of criticism could I make to the players? I can’t criticise anything.

And if I don’t have any basis to criticise the players, it’s normal that I take responsibility.

I spent so much time on some answers because I don’t want what I say to be put down the wrong way.

There is a habit that many head coaches around the world have, not only in England, but in countries where I understand what the head coaches say. There is a very common sentence. Usually they say they are responsibility for the negative cycle. If we don’t explain why, we enduce the listeners to reach the opposite conclusion of what we’re saying.

In realty, they say they;re responsible, but don’t convince the audience if they don’t say why, so the audience is invited to transfer it to the players.

I don’t have any doubt that your questions are always full of good questions. But the meaning of the question, as my answer was long, maybe we forget was to describe the responsibility of the players. Are they mature enough to do this? Honestly I think it’s my responsibility.

The last game had 3 segments. The first half hour, beautiful football and the last 15 minutes of the first half, the goal had an impact on our confidence. And at the beginning fo the second half I made changes and the team didn’t improve - they got worse, so my implication did not have the result I wanted. As the decision i took didn’t have the result, so I cam clearly responsible. Because the first half was good and I made changes and it became worse. So I’m doing self-criticism but with factual basis. But I like to be precise.

For me the first 25 mins of the second half were very important. Because in spite of not being able to build one chance to score we played in the opponents half and we didn’t conceded any counter attacks.

To sum up this moment, we knew how to play bad. To learn had to play bad means you can’t impose your style, but can prevent the opponent from building attacks. In the last 20 minutes, from my humble point of view we were getting the fruits from all our efforts we made in the first 25 mintues without having any chances to score.

And we played well again, created five chances to score and scored one goal and in the middle of this 20 mins, the opponent scored the third goal. But if you look at the last minutes of this game, the effort made by the team was moving. They kept running as if it was 0-0.

And they produced beautiful football, created chances and the team overcame the humiliation of losing 0-3 at home.

That’s why I wold like to make it clear, that the responsibility I am assuming is a true responsibility and I don’t think the players are responsible .

The day I assume the players are responsible, I wouldn’t tell you.

Is pressure starting to play a part in the season now?

I don’t think so. Because we play all the games with the same style.

The games we are playing have two models.

It’s when we strengthen what we deserve or we don’t strengthen what we deserve.

For example you have a few games like the West Brom one. I am finding out the criteria I am using to analysis, are not overwhelming shared by others.

I don;t think that the feeling I have after the loss against Norwich everyone has. But I’m sure of one thing - I can defend my point of view and if you want to make analysis of football you have to analyse what you do and don’t deserve.

You don’t need to make any analysis if you base it on the result. The point is that when you are in a negative cycle, any analysis that you make is seen as a justification, not a true analysis. That’s why sometimes I’m ashamed to explain all these things. Because many listeners think he is looking for justifications. Because among human beings there is the dogma of winning at all costs.

It’s a lot easier to give importance to the win than to not take into consideration into analysis.

Does naming your XI in advance help the opposition?

For me it’s not important all.

What are you expecting from Boro?

If I had to chose which was the hardest game we’ve played so far with frictions, the one that presented the most difficult physical challenges, I wold say it’s the one against MIddlesbrough. And I think this will be the trend on Saturday.

What will you change from that first fixture?

Nothing has changed.

We were not surprised by the way Middlesbrough played in the first game. W knew they would play this kind of game and in the duel of styles, Boro win. Because they didn’t play better than us, they didn’t have the ball, but they had more chances to score than us.

They prevented us from playing and being faithful to their method they were able to create chances. It was one of the few games we deserved to lose, it was a draw.

QPR rearrangement means three games in a week - problem?

No. You can’t find excuses. The idea when you have a game to play, you play it, you win it. Three games in six days is a difficulty to assume. Every game we run more. More than when we need. So far the games we lost, it’s not because we lacked courage or determination but the thing is you have elements that break conclusions. And the role of the media is to offer conclusions.

And if in this cycle we played the best game of the season, which was against Derby County, we have to take into account these details to evaluate the state of the team.

We can’t say that in this cycle we have this negative aspect and we have a game where the opposite happened.

How serious are the Forshaw, Klich, Pablo injuries?

Not serious because they have the possibility to play.

But I never put a player who is in doubt on the pitch. I never push a player to play. I only put him in the team if he’s 100% available to play.
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by rss1969 »

So we get Bamford back on the pitch and Phillips back from a ban and there are 3 missing for Saturday?

Douglas will have to play LB as Alioski will be needed further forward. Maybe Shackleton to start.

We will get outrun and overpowered in midfield if the 3 of them are not fit.
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by DominanceUK »

rss1969 wrote:So we get Bamford back on the pitch and Phillips back from a ban and there are 3 missing for Saturday?

Douglas will have to play LB as Alioski will be needed further forward. Maybe Shackleton to start.

We will get outrun and overpowered in midfield if the 3 of them are not fit.
I agree pal, if those 3 don't play then who does? The creativity has gone because of no Pablo. Phillips for Forshaw, Roberts instead of Pablo in the centre but who for Klich? Quite worrying tbh. Questioned whether the training regime/high pressing game has been affecting the injuries this season a few times.
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by Davycc »

DominanceUK wrote:
rss1969 wrote:So we get Bamford back on the pitch and Phillips back from a ban and there are 3 missing for Saturday?

Douglas will have to play LB as Alioski will be needed further forward. Maybe Shackleton to start.

We will get outrun and overpowered in midfield if the 3 of them are not fit.
I agree pal, if those 3 don't play then who does? The creativity has gone because of no Pablo. Phillips for Forshaw, Roberts instead of Pablo in the centre but who for Klich? Quite worrying tbh. Questioned whether the training regime/high pressing game has been affecting the injuries this season a few times.
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by kk white »

Worrying to read 45 injuries so far is more than he's ever seen before in a season...

I wouldn't be surprised though if that figure is higher because MB insists on every single little niggle being recorded, whereas other clubs might not bother logging them...?
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by rss1969 »

Whatever the reason, injuries have hampered us all season...........not just niggles but long lay-offs to key players.

I cant see how we can compete with a team as physically strong as Boro with these key injuries. We are close to getting out back 5 back fit (not on form due to said injuries though) and now the midfield is missing our better 3 players.
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by SCOTTISH LEEDS »

Jack Clarke update

He’s under observation. We’re doing some more exams to see what happened and we all feel relieved.

How much did the late goal at Boro give everyone a lift?

When you don’t lose it always improves your mental spirit.

But it’s not only about the final result, not losing but it’s also about analysing the game. To evaluate what kind of responses we were able to give.

And in that sense the conclusions are positive ones.

What are your memories of Gordon Banks?

He’s a glory of English football. And he’s also a glory of world football. He’s among the best goalkeepers of history and it’s a small group when you talk about the best ones. All these real facts define who was Gordon Banks.

Forshaw might be available - is that the case?

Forshaw won’t play tomorrow.

Casilla, Ayling, Jansson, Cooper, Alioski, Phillps, Roofe, Pablo, Bamford, Harrison will be the starting XI.

We think Forshaw’s injury is not that serious but the fact that he missed two games we have to take this reality into account. And we have more days after the game against Swansea, so we hope he’ll be available in about 10 days.

Brown in your squad?

Yes, he will be with the group tomorrow,

On struggles to score first

We all try to find explanations to this. You, the media and us. Nobody wants to concede the first goal.

There’s a price that we are not willing to play.

If we only focused on the fact to prevent the opponent from scoring a goal we would be doing something in the way you are proposing. If we share the energy between creating and defending the possibility for the opponent to score a goal is higher. This is scientific, mathematical analysis. But from a football point of view if you dominate you have more chances to score and more chances not to concede.

What is true is that usually we conceded one of less goals per game but now we concede more than one goal per game.

And with a specificity is that our team always contributes to the goal scored by the opponent. But it’s not very fair to say it’s a contribution.

But you have actions of danger or situatuons that depend exclusively on the team that is attacking and you have others that are made easier by the team that is defending. When you make it easier for the opponent to attack it’s when you make a mistake. But the mistake is part of football. If there’s something that you can’t ask to a football player, you can’t tell them ‘take risks but you can’t make a mistake.’

The best ones take risks and don’t make mistakes. They are very few. If you tell a player takes risks but don’t make a mistake, the player has one solution - not to take risks.

And if you don’t take risks in football games, the game becomes less attractive.

And then the capacity of winning decreases. You always compare yourself to the opponent.

If the only comparison we make is which team is not making mistakes when two teams with the goal of not making a mistake the game is not attractive.

On Luke Ayling's form

For me Luke Ayling is a great player. A complete player. When I say complete I mean he can manage all the aspects of the game.

He can defend as a full-back, as a centre-back. He has an aerial game that is not very common for full-backs. And if we divide the pitch into three segments on the right hand side of the pitch, he defends well, he is very well in playing out, he takes risks when we have to organise and use the ball and the only thing that decreased a little bit is his defensive impact.

He usually gets a grade about 7 points and now he’s getting a grade of over 6 points..

The thing we can’t do is to look at everything, so we divide and we command only the last games. The only thing I can tell about Luke Ayling, that he contribute a little less in attack and usually he was getting a grade of more than 7, now it’s more than 6.

But for me he’s a very important player for the team. He is a player that is an example for his team-mates, the public, the fans and in football you have very few players who don’t have ups and downs.

And when Luke has less impact, he’s always has more than 6 points. Even in his downs he’s over 6 points.

Maybe I’m not objective. Because I have a very special respect for him, for what he gives to the team. Because he always assumes risks. And because he’s influenced for this feature that I admire him. Obviously he’s better than what you think.

On the player's fitness work

It’s not convenient to be overweight . But it’s not the only aspect that decides the physical performance. THe quality of the training sessions is obviously also important and the professionalism of the player is more important that the quality of the training session, because you need rest to get a good psychical performance. The thing that makes you have a better physical performance is the character, the personality. And if we make a mix of these three aspects, the most important one is the personality and the natural skills. Second is the professionalism and the third one is the quality of the training sessions.

Are Swansea a better side than their league position suggests?

For me Swansea is a big team. It’s a team that hasn't used its full potential so far. It’s a team that has a counter-culture.

They have players very good with the ball. And I like how Swansea play.

How difficult to assess the promotion race?

We all agree with the fact that Championship there are no easy games.

And we know that’s it’s difficult to have continuity.

You don’t win many games with a huge difference in the score.

We’re not sure either if the teams at the top of the table are going to beat the teams at the bottom.

All those who analyse the results of the Championship know that each game is important. And it’s very difficult to draw conclusions.

Injury latest on Berardi

BIelsa says Berardi and Dallas will play the next two under-23s games.

That’s all from him now.
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