It’s quite the plot twist for 2022. Leeds United, a club whose support traditionally revel in the antipathy they inspire, cast as the moral saviours of the Premier League season.
But in a deep winter where pandemic postponements have sometimes felt spurious – Liverpool’s false positives and Arsenal’s nixing of the north London derby spring to mind – Marcelo Bielsa’s willingness to persevere with youth and keep marching on has stood apart.
In the middle of an injury crisis, Bielsa has turned to the club’s thriving academy. Leeds named seven teenagers on the bench – including 15-year-old Archie Gray – at West Ham last weekend yet sparkled in a 3-2 win that surely eliminates them from the relegation conversation.
Once again for the visit of Newcastle on Saturday, they will be without talisman Patrick Bamford. But it says much about Bielsa’s alchemy that Leeds have managed to generate momentum without key players like Bamford, Liam Cooper and Robin Koch for spells.
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“Finding solutions” was what Bielsa called it this week and the success of re-positioning Luke Ayling as a central defensive lynchpin or Germany defender Koch as a deep-lying midfielder owes much to the manager’s ingenuity.
If last season brought the plaudits and a top ten finish, Leeds’ second act in the Premier League has arguably been all the more impressive for the way they’ve adapted to issues that would have sunk less capable coaches.
“We’ve been constantly challenged but sometimes it’s a situation to fortify the strength of the group,” Bielsa said.
Newcastle are attempting a mid-season rebuild that is the polar opposite of that of Leeds. Signing Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood has plugged a couple of gaps but the anticipated revolution has been checked by savvy selling clubs applying a steep “Newcastle premium”.
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They head to Elland Road in desperate need of results as well as an identity. It is perhaps no surprise that Leeds’ Victor Orta – the sharp executive whose early embrace of data and sport science has given his club an edge on their rivals – has occasionally been name-checked as they conduct a search for their own director of football.
Perhaps Orta could do more with greater resources, but it’s doubtful that he’d find a manager as suited to the structure as Bielsa.
“There’s evidence of growth of Leeds United since Victor Orta’s been here. He’s picked well,” the Leeds manager said, flat-batting enquiries about interest in RB Leipzig’s USA midfielder Brenden Aaronson.
“Victor’s a person who knows the market well. The majority of the players he has scouted are young, and the players that have arrived here, they are usually worth more after they have been here.”
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When asked about that sense of loyalty, Bielsa hints at the mutual respect that is likely to persuade him to extend his stay into the 2022-23 season.
“There’s a phrase that says that a team needs to be loved in order to win, not they are loved because they won,” he says.
“All of the teams that are loved are because they won, but it’s very important to be loved to be able to win. Leeds fans have shown [us] a massive generosity.”
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