An impromptu press conference was called earlier today by under-fire Leeds United boss, Marcelo Bielsa.
The eccentric manager had admitted that he was responsible for the spy controversy that dogged his sides’ win over Derby last week. The buzz that followed this presser announcement for 5p.m saw many believe that he would step down as Leeds manager, or at least issue a grovelling apology.
Instead, Bielsa was once again startlingly forthright in admitting that he had ‘spied‘ on all 23 Championship clubs this season.
“What I have done is not illegal. It’s not a violation of the law,” Bielsa said bluntly. “I observed all the rivals and we watched all the training sessions of the opponents before we played against them. My goal is to make the investigation easier.
“I am going to try and explain that I didn’t have bad intentions or get a sporting advantage.”
In order to explain this, he produced a Powerpoint presentation that took over 300 hours to make. In it, he provided reams of tactical observations on Derby and other teams, even including Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona back in the day, to intimate that he has done such in-depth research that the ‘spying’ is a non-factor.
This is genuinely one of the Maddest/Genius things I’ve seen in football😅 Bielsa outing @dcfcofficial to the entire league😂 #LUFC pic.twitter.com/ICQDVkilzC
— Isaac👨🏻💻 (@isaacmartin484) January 16, 2019
“All the information I need to clarify the game against an opponent I gather it without having the necessity without having to watch the training session of the opponent. So why did I do it? It’s just because I thought I wasn’t violating a normal thing. As I reach my conclusion. I gather information that I can obtain in another manner.
“Of each opponent we watched all the games of 2018/19 – we watched the 51 games of Derby County. The analysis of each game takes four hours of work – why did we do that? Because we think it is professional behaviour.”
Comprehensive charting of Derby County’s season, focusing here on their loss to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup, was matched by analysis of positioning and tactical changes as the match progressed.
This blueprint to how Derby County F.C operates even had statistics for each individual player that would make Football Manager afictionados blush, with Liverpool loanee Harry Wilson among those highlighted.
Phil Hay of the Yorkshire Evening Post was present, and his timeline of the conference is quite an experience.
This is a spectacular takedown of Spygate. Now showing us percentages for the number of times Derby have used certain formations and which players have moved around in different positions. "This gives you priorities." #lufc
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) January 16, 2019
the video is 41 minutes long, made up of Derby attacks over the course of the season. "When you see 41 minutes, you see what the path that the opponent attacks and you see the defensive weakness." His staff then condense the video to eight minutes for the players to watch.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) January 16, 2019
Now going through every Derby formation and showing who plays where most often and how is changes. He knows how many minutes each player has played in each position. You sort of wonder if even Lampard knows this much about Derby.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) January 16, 2019
This extravagant defence of his actions can be described by the man himself in one line: “I don’t need to go to watch a training session of an opponent to know how the opponent plays.”
As with most things regarding Bielsa, it’s hard to get a read on how the FA will react in terms of sanctions, or even if a new policy concerning the observation of other teams’ training sessions will be implemented.
It’s an ambitious play, but that is a term that definitely describes his Leeds outfit so far this season.
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