Until recently, the phrase ‘Doing a Leeds’ was used as a warning of the mammoth disaster that could befall a club if it wasn’t prudent in its decisions. Often seen as the epitome of drastic falls, Leeds United can finally try to wipe off the disgrace brought upon them in the last 16 years, as they make a return to the Premier League under the revolutionary leadership of Marcelo Bielsa.
From Champions League semi-finals in 2001, two horrible relegations, to finally making it back to the EPL, it has been a movie-like journey for The Peacocks. Their Champions League success had been preceded by an intense spending spree, to the point where they had splashed more cash than any other Premier League club. What followed was catastrophic mismanagement which saw the club debt rise to 119 million euros, forcing them to sell many players and staff members to balance their books.
2004 saw their exit from the Premier League, only three years after, only a season after finishing fifth. The downhill journey continued, and after incurring a 10-point penalty after entering administration (English equivalent of insolvency) amid financial losses, Leeds eventually got relegated from the Championship in 2007.
The Bielsa Era
Fast-forward to 2018, where Leeds had been surviving as a mid-table team in the Championship after securing promotion from League One. In June, they appointed Bielsa, who had been infamous then for his issues with authority after quitting from Lazio two days after his appointment and leaving OSC Lille after 11 games. The move had shocked the world of football, because the ‘Bucket Man’ was sought by much better clubs then.
The 2017–18 season had seen Leeds finishing 13th with below average football. While hotshot managers demand heavy changes to the squad as soon as they begin, Bielsa began his mission to change the club’s football from within. The club had nine senior players who’d been playing together for a while. All of them played regularly during his first season (2018–19). With almost the same team, the Argentine was revolutionising Leeds’ football from within. His high-intensity all-round press had taken the league by storm and players who would usually be considered goners were living up to his demands of physicality because of the sense of purpose he had instilled in the squad.
His pressing style is different from the likes of Pep and Klopp. While most top-tier managers prefer a high press, Bielsa demanded an all-round press and defensive visibility from the team. For example, the graphic below shows their pressing and defensive presence as compared to other League One clubs in the 2018–2019 season.
The ambitious project saw them rising ten places in the table, with the fans hoping that they were only a win against Derby County (then managed by Frank Lampard) away from being in the EPL again. The shocking loss had many believing that it was their Liverpool moment: that this was the closest they would have gotten to glory.
But Leeds’ persistence and top-quality football saw them roaring in the championship this season. The consistency of Bielsa’s project was evident as they finished top of the table with 93 points, scoring 77 goals (second highest in the league) and conceding only 35 (lowest in the league), never dropping beneath fifth place throughout the season. How Leeds United performs at the Premier League, the most intense in the world, is for the world to be seen, but their claim to glory is inspirational to say the least. The only way for Bielsa’s men is forward now.