West Ham v Leeds United: Marcelo Bielsa press conference every word on injuries, Cody Drameh exit, murderball, Raphinha and Adam Forshaw talks

Full transcribe of every word to follow. Some very interesting stuff from the Whites head coach.

“In football there are two types of injuries, the ones where you can’t do nothing to avoid them and the ones that have to do with an excess of work or lack of rest. The training, of course it reproduces the situations of the competition, if not it is very difficult to prepare a team. We are still the team that runs the most in the Premier League, counting on half as many players. That has some value and what would seem like it makes common sense because you could say if there is so few of them, why are you not moderating in training? For example, Gelhardt’s injury, Greenwood falls on top of him and injures him. It doesn’t have anything to do with the type of activity. For Cresswell, a team mate falls on top of him and injures his shoulder. Summerville clashes with one of his team mates and he has his clavicle hurt. That hasn’t do do with the type of training but the activity has things that can’t be prevented. But apart from that, if we lost our intensity, we would lose a value that is something that is very important and the intensity, you keep it by training, not by not training.”

“I think it is a great decision. Raphinha is the best player in the team in all the senses. Physically, he is the best, technically he is at the level of the best and the interpretation that he has of the game is very good, very wise. He is within the group of such a powerful nation as Brazil. He shines in the Premier League and he has the attention of all the big clubs in the world. All of those things are something that you guys know as much as me, nothing that I am saying is new. As a result, the decision of the club can only be valued.”

“The young players want to come to Leeds because they see that there are options. If you look, there are 20 players that go on the field every week. I haven’t done this but anyone can do it, if you add the minutes of the young players that each player has in the 20 man-squads and see if any of them have half as many minutes as the ones that Leeds has. Of course, if we hadn’t had those ten injuries, that amount would been a lot lower but we had ten injuries and there was moments and opportunities for everyone and despite that, the project is not sufficiently attractive for them to finish it so there are two things that are very important and I am referring to myself. When you are so much in disagreement with the new generations and their decisions, that has more to do not with the youngsters but the lack of adaptation and in this case mine so I see it in that way. And when a player is within the 20, plays once a week, plays against the starting team once a week, that competition which is so big, so marked, as it is described as ‘murderball’, if a footballer in development says no this is no longer good for me, evidently there is an error in the calculation for those who project this because if not then all of them would want to participate. Either way, the father of this idea is Victor Orta, it was a very, very good idea that had repercussions on the economy of the club in a very good way from all points of views with the value that Pascal, Gelhardt or any of the ones that arrived justifies clearly the fact that we worked so much because the work that they do to pick players to convince them to come and the work that they do in the under 23s to start to develop them is enormous.”

“It is difficult for me to refer myself to Forshaw in this moment where he has given such a valuable response because I didn’t think Forshaw was going to be the player that he was once before because I don’t want it to seem like the process that Forshaw went through wasn’t with my support. He did it by himself with all the support which the club gave him which was a big support but I didn’t participate in his success, I only accompanied him and when the moment came I gave the responses that he deserved to play but the important part of those two years I wasn’t there with him so I don’t want to link myself too much to him because I don’t want to over impose his success. The club would make a very convenient decision if they extended Forshaw because every week he is showing he is a player of a very good level.”

“Of course, with a player leaving it is one alternative less. I, in particular, and the club, we look after the squad that a player forms a part to form a project. We make a big effort in the work for each of the players. We want cycles to be accomplished but there is not one of the young players who doesn’t want to leave or the majority of them. For me, I live that as a failure because of what we do for each player to triumph, not for each player to want to leave. When a young player that is receiving an opportunity wants to leave what other readings do I have to make then that we have made a mistake? That we have taken a chance on a player, not Cody in particular, that prefers not to finish a cycle that has an objective to convert him into an elite player.”

“For me, the time that I have spent here has been a time of growth. I have learned the culture of English football and that alone justifies any experience. On another side, I integrated myself into a club like this one. There is nobody who goes through here who doesn’t come out with a signal. It’s a city, a club with fans of support that leaves a mark on someone who has been a part of it. Also, competing in the first league in the world and all of what that signifies. All of this I have said it so any times that it sounds as though I am being a demagogue but sometimes you have the risk of sounding like a demagogue when you answer two words.”

“When a player wants to leave, there is no point of trying to keep them. What is necessary is that he manifests it and if he manifests it, the part that I have to play is finished. After, if a club wants to let go of the player or not, in what conditions he leaves, my position is that if he wants to leave I am not going to oppose it and I apply that to any player that wants to leave. Any player that comes to me and says I don’t want to continue here, they can count on me for them to leave but I am not the only one that decides. The players have got contracts that they have signed and commitments with the club, I only limit myself to say that the reason why we shouldn’t keep them which is that the player doesn’t want to be here. But when a player doesn’t want to be here it is better to understand him and find a way for him to leave but without forgetting that professional football and that everything that is done is retributed and if it is retributed then we have rights and we have obligations, not only obligations and rights. But these things are things that you guys know to perfection and there is no point in me talking about but it is part of professional football and that is how professional football is managed and it’s not wrong.”

“He has had interruptions, he hasn't been able to have continuity but it is clear that the conditions that he has are very, very important. It's true he hasn’t expressed all of his potential yet but I see him improving constantly. I think he is a player with very, very important conditions.”

“The future depends on them taking advantage of the opportunities that they receive and when they have opportunities they have to show that they are at the level of the Premier League. For example, Pascal made himself a Premier League player by taking advantage of the opportunities and that’s what it’s about. The time that we spend developing young players is very, very, very big. It’s not only the people that work directly with the under 23s that do an admirable job, they are here all day but all the technical staff in the first team that we see every game that they play and everything that happens and comment it to the players . But evidently there is an error in how we interpret our work. If not, the players wouldn't leave or they would be grateful when they left what’s been done for them.”

“Very happy. When Bamford was injured against Newcastle, the injury was towards the end of the game and I asked Bamford to finish what was left of the game because we needed him and he did so and he collaborated with the team. Perhaps me asking him, that aggravated his injury. Rodrigo played for a long time with a knock which eventually forced him to stop and Dallas is a player that plays every week with something that another player would probably rule him out, Ayling the same, he always has difficulties in his knee that he has to overcome. And then after there are injuries like the one to Gelhardt which is ligament damage and there is no way for you to play and the same with Greenwood - if the joint in your knee is damaged you can’t play - or with Shackleton’s one where if your tendon is hurt you then you can’t play. With Cooper and Phillips it’s the structure of the fibre. Normally all the players have shown great character towards the injuries and all of the players have shortened their time of recovery. And there is also a dosage of luck in this. For example, Bamford’s injury is caused by an un-coordinated movement when he scored that goal and in the celebration he aggravates that small injury into something important. And so I think that perhaps the excess of character is what has jeopardised us.”

“We have to see how the rules interpret the situations that happen, the rules as they are applied to every player without distinction of their position. When a striker makes a movement moving a defender away, normally it is not a foul but when a defender moves a striker away using their arms for example it is a foul so it is clear even though the rule involves all the players, in practice, I’m not saying that it is bad or that it’s good, I am saying that this is what happens. The same action, If a defender does it against a forward it is a foul but if it’s the opposite way round it’s not a foul. In the game against Burnley there was also a lot of actions of that type. Why do I describe this situation? As to tell how it is in reality. It’s not bad, nor is it good, simply we have to learn to adapt to a reality that you can see clearly. There is a lot of actions that you need to learn how to value in terms of how they are in practice. In the set pieces for example, when an opponent obstructs the movement of a defender for them to lose their marker, there’s an infinite amount of those actions and those action are not sanctioned but if that same thing happens outside of the box, a player puts himself in the way of someone else outside of the box it is normally called a foul and the same thing happens wen you put yourself in the way of the goalkeeper, where he wants to go. When a goalkeeper wants to go somewhere and an opponent is positioned where he is going to get himself in his path, intentionally, to avoid him from moving, that’s how obstruction is described but the goalkeepers suffer this constantly and they never blow this. This what I am saying, it’s not that I say it, anyone who wants to verify it there are a hundred actions to show what I am talking about. So I think that you have to adapt and not badly interpret these situations but to try to understand what the criteria is and VAR has the possibility to verify all of this and because I believe in good intentions and professionalism, what is evident is interpreted in a different manner to what the rules say, what corresponds is to adapt to this variant of that certain situation which is what we try to do.”

"It is probably that Pascal, Rodrigo and Bamford are options to return."

“No, disappointing no. Having said that, a lot of the young players who accompany the first team have made a desire to go elsewhere too, Evidently, what I propose to them is not what they desire so I do not criticise and don’t condemn it and it doesn’t disappoint me but clearly I calculated things wrongly because what I consider a great opportunity, there are very few teams or none who have had so many youngsters in their squad in the Premier League but those who are benefiting from that position, they prefer to abandon the club looking for another type of competition. Evidently, what I imagined as a great chance and possibility, they don’t. But all of that in football at the moment is impossible to decipher but the reasons that are taken and that are made is that footballers are the ones who have the least opinions in the management of their careers. But perhaps I overvalue the fact that you are in a 20 man squad in the best league in the world.”

“No, I didn’t think he needed to play games elsewhere. He was a player that was very necessary with all the absences that we have but he preferred to go and play outside of Leeds. In a situation where the opportunities for the youngsters has increased clearly and in this case Drameh would prefer to experiment outside of our team, I consider that position valid and I don’t think it makes sense to oppose him. What I imagined as a great opportunity, he imagined it in a different way and it is more important what he thinks than what I think. And I don’t think it is convenient to impose in a situation where a player wants to belong or doesn’t want to belong.”

“No he hasn’t had a setback, he is still evolving, his recovery still hasn’t been finalised.”

“It’s a fight that they deserve, the one that they are taking forward. Its’ a team that has variants for each position and they have adapted to the absences that they have had, they are a team of power offensively and with a very solid structure.”