'Marcelo Bielsa is good for the English game' - Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray wants to see 'humble' Leeds United head coach impacting Premier League

Blackburn Rovers boss Mowbray, who watched his side lose 2-1 to Bielsa's Leeds United on Saturday, is a big admirer of what the Argentine has done at Elland Road since his summer 2018 arrival.

The way the Whites switch play and relentlessly probe to find space in which they manoeuvre to hurt teams is down to the influence of a man Mowbray regards as a 'top coach.'

Leeds took the lead against their weekend visitors from a penalty - described as soft by Mowbray - won by Luke Ayling who had run on to a clever ball dinked in behind the Rovers backline by Tyler Roberts.

Their second goal came when Kalvin Phillips sent a long diagonal ball into the area for Patrick Bamford to take down and find Jack Harrison, the winger moving quickly into space to receive before shooting home off the post.

“He is showing them a way to play and giving them confidence, I’m sure," said the former West Brom and Celtic manager.

“I don’t stand here and think: ‘Wow, they’re too good for the league’ because as they proved last year they probably had better players than they’ve got now and they couldn’t get out of the league.

“And so he’s undoubtedly a top coach. A coach generally gives a team an identity and that is what he’s given Leeds. That identity is forward passing, forward running, exposing spaces, having five across the front and stretching our back four and creating spaces between our full backs and out central defenders.

“Your back four stretches out too much and it all comes across, they switch the play, they put it in behind us. They understand the spaces on the pitch. And the coach makes them understand that. And they have players who are brave to receive the ball and play in those spaces."

Almost every manager who takes a team into battle with United sings their praises after the game.

It has become a running theme for opposition bosses to dub the Whites the finest in the division, a side you simply do not go toe-to-toe with at Elland Road, a team who should be 'up there' come May.

Mowbray is not the first to bestow the title of 'top coach' on Bielsa, but few have spoken in such glowing terms about the man behind the philosophy.

When words like 'cheat' were being cast in the direction of the Leeds boss last season after Spygate, Mowbray wasn't buying it.

He believes Bielsa's presence in English football is a positive for the game on these shores.

“I like his personality to be honest. He doesn’t speak much English to be honest so it’s difficult to converse with him, but I did speak with him on the phone a couple of months ago about something and I liked him, liked his personality.

“He seems to me, despite the ‘Spygate’ thing, he seems a pretty humble, honest, hard-working guy.

“I think what he’s done in the countries he’s been in that it was just normal. He wasn’t ‘cheating’, he was just doing what was done.

“I’m only saying that through talking to him. I don’t see a sneaky, clever guy who thinks he’s better than everyone else. I see a really humble, nice guy.

“Someone who is good for the game, someone who is good for English football.”

Mowbray is in no doubt that Bielsa's Leeds, currently sitting third in the Championship, two points behind leaders West Brom, can go on to achieve their dream of a Premier League return.

While some of his peers might have secretly preferred to see Bielsa's stint in the English second tier come to an end last summer and celebrated his departure with a sigh of relief, the Rovers head coach was pleased when Leeds confirmed the retention of the 64-year-old's services and is curious, if not keen, to see how Bielsaball would impact the top flight.

“I think it would be really, really interesting to see how Leeds would get on in the Premier League if they can get there.

“And undoubtedly they can and they could have done last year of course. But as we are seeing we’ve got Sheffield United doing really well in the Premier League and we’ve got probably the best football team in the Championship last year in Norwich who are really struggling. So there’s no guarantee of success when you get there.

“I just think if Bielsa gets to the Premier League and if they spend some money would he create a team that can give lots of Premier League teams lots of problems with his positional play?

“And it would be fascinating to see that.

“We all thought he would do it last year but he didn’t. He fell short. But I’m personally pleased he’s stayed in England because there was a lot of talk that he’d have one season and have a go at it and move on. Great credit to him for staying and having another go."