Marcelo Bielsa reflects on Leeds United's search for shooting precision and more moments of danger

United are approaching tomorrow evening’s contest on Merseyside without a win from their last three games after being forced to settle for a goalless draw despite dominating last weekend’s showdown against Arsenal at Elland Road.

Leeds had 25 attempts on goal against a Gunners side that played over 40 minutes with ten men following Nicolas Pepe’s 51st-minute red card yet the Whites hit the woodwork three times as Mikel Arteta’s side left with a point.

Bielsa admitted the clash had the same characteristics as some of United’s contests in the Championship over the last two seasons in which squandering a host of goalscoring opportunities cost the Whites all three points.

United’s head coach says his side have naturally been working on being more precise with their shooting in training but Bielsa says there is no direct link between the amount of work undertaken on finishing to what transpires on the pitch.

Yet Bielsa says his side’s rigorous work will continue to influence the number of chances created as 14th-placed Leeds look to be even more dangerous and ultimately ruthless at sixth-placed Everton in Saturday's 5.30pm kick-off at Goodison Park.

“It’s not that we don’t train precision, accuracy or shooting, but what we have to do is create opportunities of danger,” said Bielsa.

“We have to achieve not needing as many chances to score a goal.

“Your question is how do we improve this? We have to be precise. All players and all teams train this rigorously.

“There’s no direct relationship between the more we train these aspects and the better they get.

“What the sessions do influence is the amount of opportunities you can create.”

Asked if the draw against Arsenal created a sense of deja vu going back to some of United’s Championship games, Bielsa admitted: “I think in other occasions we have had many opportunities to score and this prevented us from winning.

“The game against Arsenal had these characteristics.”

Reflecting on what he could do as a coach, Bielsa explained: “Football is decided in both boxes.

“You have to be effective to finish off your attacks and you have to neutralise the attacks of the opponent so they don’t become dangerous.

“What happens in the two boxes appears to be key, but what happens in the rest of the pitch will condition what happens in the boxes.

“If you elaborate you will have more opportunities to create danger and more important chances.

“If you neutralise the opponent before they reach your box you will have better opportunities to defend.

“Against Arsenal, in the first half we played well 11 v 11 and in the second half it was more difficult to attack because the opponent sat back with the same amount of players, even though they had one player less.

“Because Arsenal had one player less they were able to defend deeper and better, but this cost them offensively.

“In line with this, we had to defend less and had more of the ball to attack, but in more difficult conditions.

“Within that context, in the two halves we created 12 opportunities to score and we received three attacks from them and the best team in the world with 12 opportunities, score three or four goals.

“Usually, from 12 chances we score two or three.

“In this case, there was not precision or accuracy.”

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/three-areas-leeds-united-and-marcelo-bielsa-must-concentrate-beat-carlo-ancelottis-everton-3049967https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/carlo-ancelotti-faces-big-loss-everton-missing-two-key-players-leeds-united-test-3050311https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/yorkshire-evening-post-launch-leeds-united-only-digital-subscription-ahead-premier-league-campaign-2967964

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Thank you Laura Collins