'I think I also have the right' - Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa on what he values about press conferences and the media

It used to be said, ordinarily by those not accustomed to the Leeds United head coach, in press rooms after he and his translator had vacated the room, in the days before the pandemic, when press conferences were held face to face and felt a little more like a discussion and less like a Q&A.

The problem, for anyone tasked with turning around 300 words, is instantly identifying the most newsworthy, eye-catching quote after Bielsa has refused to criticise the referee, given a 10-word answer to a question about a substitution and then taken minutes to matter-of-factly describe Leeds’ struggle to build attacks or recover the ball in good condition.

For headline hunters, Bielsa is a nightmare.

There are rarely any pithy statements, there are no barbs at his opposite number, he doesn’t dig out individual players and there’s never anything controversial.

For anyone tasked with writing at length about Leeds, Bielsa is a dream because, aside from all the interesting facets of his football and philosophy, if you get him on a subject that either touches a nerve, captures his imagination or happens to be the thing he has had on his mind to speak about, the quotes come rolling in.

Some days you can finish a press conference feeling for all the world like Bielsa was merely fulfilling a contractual obligation, on other days it feels like he was having fun - like when he replied to a pre-Manchester United question about George Best with: “I thought you were going to ask me about a Leeds United player, a more symbolic player for Leeds, like Gordan Strachan.”

That was about as close to mischief as we’re ever going to get, from Bielsa.

It’s the same with many managers, they have good press conferences and not so good ones, good moods and bad ones, although Bielsa’s arms-length approach to the media means his true feelings about the men and women of the press and his dealings with them, remain largely a mystery.

But after Sunday’s win over Burnley, which followed a post-Old Trafford rocky patch of sorts for the relationship, such as it is, between Bielsa and the media, he revealed the value he derives from press conferences.

First, he made it clear that the press is never to blame for what happens in games because their influence does not extend beyond the white lines that mark out a football pitch.

“I don’t think the press has anything to do with the results a team obtains,” he said.

“The actions of the press, what’s written doesn’t influence what happens in a team.

“That’s why I never justify a result to the influence of the press.”

Whether he enjoys it or not, Bielsa values his press conferences. They are a means to an end, for Bielsa, because they afford him an opportunity to address Leeds fans, get his point across and rebutt or respond to what has been said about his team.

“I never speak about the press in general because the media has different ways of communicating,” he said.

“But what I do like is where possible that the media knows the way I analyse the game.

“Football is a subject where everyone can have an opinion, everyone has an opinion in football, everybody likes football and likes to offer their point of view.

“I also think I have the right and the possibility, I feel it’s right for me to say what I think with respect to being said or written and to add to what the fans can see, a point of view that is different.”

Part of the reason why there is often a lack of easy lines and killer quotes is that Bielsa doesn’t see a press conference as a chance to offer an excuse or blame someone else, but rather to shoulder responsibility for whatever transpired in the game.

He also feels a responsibility to offer insight to the people whose opinions matter most and allow them to form fully informed opinions, in the way he himself insists – “It wouldn’t be correct to have an opinion without having certainty,” he said on Sunday with reference to officiating disputed by Burnley.

And perhaps this gets to the heart of why Bielsa makes it his business to know what it is that is being written about Leeds, when ignorance would almost certainly facilitate a more blissful existence.

Ignorance, for a self confessed worrier, a man who cannot help but analyse to the nth degree and a man for whom no stone can be left unturned, is not an option.

“I add my point of view but don’t justify myself with the explanation, because the common thing is that with any explanation that anyone loses offers, is interpreted as a justification,” he said.

“I’m always of the understanding that you have to make yourself responsible for the errors, to explain what happened in the game with a certain optic doesn’t mean it’s a justification.

“Finally the polemic has value because it allows those who listen to value the arguments that every part offers and to understand who they think has the reason.”

Forget ‘the line’ because it’s all about the reason. Leeds fans decided long ago who has the reason but, with any luck, Bielsa will never cotton on, so the quotes, the long answers and epic press conferences will keep coming.