Leeds United v Watford - Marcelo Bielsa press conference on Kalvin Phillips future amid reported Manchester United interest and injury updates

“Nor one thing nor the other, I sleep normally and I always have the hope that we are able to win every one of our games. What we are forced to do every time we play is to deserve to impose ourselves, not always deserving is synonymous with obtaining but it is a lot easier to get what you are looking for when you deserve it than when you don’t. But football has that particularity where sometimes, prizes (are given to those) who don’t deserve to get.”

“I will need more time to go past to evaluate the effects of young players being in this competition. For the players who don’t yet play in the first team, it is always positive to play against players who are older than them.”

"Solid team. They are combative with players of experience that fundamentally complicate the development of the play of the opponent and they have forwards who are quick, who can surprise you. They give a good compliment to the defensive aspect by asking in behind.”

“It wasn’t only the first half, the first half of the second half was also valuable. Every time we analyse a game, we do it considering all the aspects. In this last game, after they drew level we lost a connection between the posterior part of the team with the superior part of the team. We had more possession than the opponent and the five players who played in the posterior part of the team, the back four and Phillips, they were able to have the ball a lot more than the same segment of the opponent. I am referring to concrete data. But the opposite of what was expected happened. West Ham’s back line, posterior line, touched the ball less but they managed even so that their forwards were able to touch the ball more than ours and that confirms what we think was a deficit of the team was that in the last 25 minutes we were not able to continue doing what we had done in the power of play or in one half and half of half. In those 60 minutes it wasn’t that we were clearly superior to the opponent but we were able to implant our game. In the last 20 to 25 minutes after they drew level, we lost that capacity so Leeds is now described once again as a team that takes too many risks and for this season they defend poorly. But if you analyse the origin of how the opponent created their chances, there is only one counter attack, we didn’t lose the ball once in our own half where it caused us danger. There were a lot of shots from distance which implies that our defenders were not overcome. There were some chances through set pieces, there were some chances that came from throw ins where all the structure was in place and the most important thing from the opponent, they constructed attack from fixed situations. What I saw is that we had more elements to defend than they did to attack so that shows that we were not imprudent. In any case, it was difficult for us to neutralise their individualities. That doesn’t mean we defended well, but what is clear is that we didn’t defend poorly due to the reasons that are being mentioned that what they say is that we exchange an attack for an attack. We attack, of course, but it is not a product of our attacking that we are defending poorly. I would say the total opposite which is that when we don’t manage to attack is when we defend our worst. If you analyse all of this interpretations that I am transmitting, they have a correlation with what happened in the game so the last 25 minutes we attacked with seven players - the two full backs and the two wingers and the three players in the middle, Dallas, Rodrigo and Klich. When that connection declines we defended too close to our own goal and the unbalances that the opponent created, created danger. But consider this what I say and the passes from which they created chances were through set pieces, throw ins, long distance finishes and the other aspects which are usually the ones that make us worse - which are the counter attacks and the losses of the ball in our own half, they only created one chance through that manner.”

"That the ball hit him in the equalising goal is just an anecdote. Nobody can evaluate whether Junior played well or poorly because a ball hit him in the back and went into our goal. With regards to his evolution within the team, I think he hasn't been able to play a 7 point performances but he also hasn't played below a 6 performance. He has had a regular performance and it has been growing but below what he is capable of. To give an example, Alioski took a lot of games to stabilise his game and he had been in England for a few years. Junior has come in from playing in two teams that play at a different rhythm to the Premier League, nor better or worse but different and in this process he is taking it forward and from my point of view it invites optimism. When Junior manages to have the rhythm that the Premier League proposes on you, he is going to be a full back that shines a lot because he has all the physical and technical resources to generate moments of very good football."

“It’s a daily process. The victories fortify the convictions. The performance without the victories is frustrating but the day to day, whether results are positive or negative, even if the way the manager acts differs, has to participate continuously.”

He composes a group of 18 players who I consider that could be starters. A Premier League player is a very expensive player and not every team can have 25 players who can be starters so I prefer to have less players but of a higher level. But in every fixture there are four or five players missing and those players who replace them come from the young team, players 18 to 33. After the 18 players you have the rest up until 33 so you can have three players per position. The difference between player one and two is not that big but the third option for every position, what we try is that they replace those in front of them. When we manage to achieve that so that is to say when Gelhardt is better than Bamford, Rodrigo and Tyler, that will be a triumph for the work that we have done. What I am looking for and what I want is for him to play and verify that he is good, not to verify that he doesn’t have the level to play. That’s why I am very cautious or very careful to position a player to play. For example, for Shackleton to aspire to be a starter, it took him a long time and in his games that he has played he might have played better or worse but he gave the necessary level. With Cresswell and Pascal the same and that is what we try to do with all the young players. The fact that Gotts is not here, Stevens is not here, Alfie is not here, Hosannah is not here, I live that as a failure or with all those players that were close to the first team but never managed to get there so it is a failure of my job. Of course, those players leaving the club, they have an opportunity to come back again but the first opportunity, the most important one is the one that we give them when we think that they could be a starter and that they show that they can be.”

I think that is a question that Kalvin needs to answer. Of course, for us, he is a very valuable player and we have to adapt ourselves to how he feels belonging to Leeds in the measure that his career develops. I have seen in him a conduct that I have very rarely seen in a player. How football is right now, for a player to decline a team above to the level were he is at due to the love of the club where he is at is not frequent and I have the certainty that Kalvin for the rest of his life is going to enjoy for the rest of his life the decisions that he makes. He will be loved definitively for always in the place where he was born and where he belongs. When you go for the money or for the evolution, you resolve a moment in your sporting career. But when you opt for the affection of your people, you ‘resolve’ your life forever because when you are loved where you are from, the possibilities to be happy increase.”

“It depends on the player. It destablises those who don’t know what they want and how they manage the time. With respect to this situation, I have two things that are very clear but before or after Phillips is going to stop playing for Leeds and in the moment and the way that he does it will convert him into an idol forever, I have a feeling, it is intuition. I don’t know how the way of thinking of a human being involved and how all the things around him act that have influence. You can’t account for that and I also don’t know Kalvin intimately. But due to the family that he has and how he has managed his decisions since I have known him, I am sure that the day he leaves Leeds and the way that he does it, far from provoking disappointment - of course it is going to generate disappointment - but it is going to solidify his link to the club, the people and the city because I am sure he would only leave if he sees that it is guaranteed that the link to the place where he was born remains in tact. He will know how to do it.”

“The experience of playing with Elland Road full, I had already lived through it in the Championship. But this one is different. If you ask me why, for me it is different. Only each one of us, each of our hopes or desires is what each of the fans want.”