Marcelo Bielsa hits out at media 'jokes' as Brentford boss Thomas Frank takes aim at Leeds United

Thomas Frank chose to go down a route that his opposite number Marcelo Bielsa routinely shuns, engaging in what other sports term trash talk.

Leeds fear us, he said. Griffin Park is the worst place Leeds could have picked to play tonight, he said.

It was strong stuff and rare, these days, too.

It is a bold approach to attempt mind games, poke the bear and fire out headline grabbing statements, given the risk of your words being rammed back down your throat.

And the general response in Yorkshire to his confident proclamation was: ‘get that pinned to the dressing room wall’.

It might puff out the chests of an already-confident Brentford side, but it might also galvanise a Leeds team and their fanbase, presenting a new target for their mutual frustration and angst.

Leeds can criticise Leeds, but Frank isn’t Leeds.

A little earlier on Thursday afternoon, Bielsa also held court with the press.

There was no such bombast from this head coach.

A week on from his 59-minute epic, in which he answered five questions, Bielsa was still showing signs of discontent with the media’s line of questioning.

His opening gambit was brief as brief can be, using no more words than entirely necessary to issue an update on team news; simply that Kalvin Phillips was to return from suspension.

The unavailability of Tyler Roberts, due to a heavy kick sustained at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, was prompted by a question a little later.

By that time, Bielsa had said all he had to say on Brentford and it was as respectful and analytical as ever.

“Brentford is a team with good attackers, one midfield builds to attack rather than defend,” said the Argentine.

“One compact defence where everybody is involved to defend and help each other.”

It was the kind of statement more likely to be found in the foreword to a book about Brentford’s 2019-20 season, than something to be printed out and pinned up to provoke a reaction from the Bees players.

The conversation turned to his methodology when it comes to restoring players’ confidence and Bielsa opened up a little more, explaining that he simply shows them what he believes to be the reality; describing their capacity to turn a bad moment of the season into a good one.

And found in that answer were some responses to general criticism that has been aimed at Leeds in recent times, but not referred to by the press in the room at Thorp Arch.

“It’s not that they don’t do anymore what they did before,” he said.

“The players are doing the same things they used to when we were in good moments.

“They are good things the players do on the pitch and also mistakes.

“Before, maybe we didn’t pay consequences for our mistakes in good moments. Now we are paying higher consequences for the mistakes.

“We used to create chances we scored those chances in good moments, now we have those chances and don’t score.

“It’s not just about scoring the chances.

“The positive things they used to do, we were able to transform into good things and now we don’t.”

His next three sentences were a clear message to anyone involved in the debate surrounding his side and their current run of form in the Championship.

“The team is not playing worse than before,” he said.

“The team is not running less than before, they are running even more.

“The team keeps the same confidence as before.”

He wouldn’t be drawn on how he himself stays confident, calling it a personal matter, and then insisted that when everyone was waxing lyrical about Leeds during their best spell the talk around Thorp Arch was not filled with such hyperbole, just as it isn’t filled with despair now that things aren’t going so well for the Whites.

But when the topic of Jean-Kevin Augustin’s integration was broached, Bielsa unloaded some of the thoughts and feelings currently occupying his mind.

He almost sounded hurt, that something he takes so seriously could lend itself to humour.

“The other day I spent 20 minutes to respond to one question, which brought mockery, and now I repeat the same that I said before,” he said.

“So it is very difficult to feel the people who ask because I could have answered ‘listen again to the last answer of 20 minutes’ – everything I’m saying now I have said before. But I didn’t want to be rude.

“Understand me please, if I give you answers with explanations, it takes time and after I listen to a lot of jokes about that.

“If I answered the questions saying yes or no, maybe you don’t like this. What I say is only taken negatively. That happens when a team is in a bad spell, when the responsible talk.

“When I transmit knowledge maybe people think I am looking down on everyone. It is not like that. I am just trying to transmit, with humility, things I am sure of. And all of you know that.”

Frank’s press conference might have been fun and games, but Bielsa is not here to play the game with the press. He’s not here to play games at all.