Why Brendan Rodgers hinted at slight and Roy Hodgson felt insulted after beating Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United

It has been some time since a Marcelo Bielsa press conference took on a spiky tone, but when each of his last two opponents sat before the media the phrasing of questions about the Argentine rubbed them up the wrong way.
PERCEIVED SLIGHT - Both Brendan Rodgers, left, and Roy Hodgson, right, were rubbed up the wrong way by the phrasing of questions after beating Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United 4-1. Pic: GettyPERCEIVED SLIGHT - Both Brendan Rodgers, left, and Roy Hodgson, right, were rubbed up the wrong way by the phrasing of questions after beating Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United 4-1. Pic: Getty
PERCEIVED SLIGHT - Both Brendan Rodgers, left, and Roy Hodgson, right, were rubbed up the wrong way by the phrasing of questions after beating Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United 4-1. Pic: Getty

Leeds United went through a sticky patch midway through their title-winning 2019/20 Championship campaign and some of Bielsa’s press conferences revealed his frustration over the Eddie Nketiah situation and his belief that supporter and media belief in his side was waning.

It became clear that the more something irked the Whites head coach, the more likely it was that he would expound in great detail his feelings and thoughts, sometimes unprompted, as if he just had to get it off his chest.

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He was always polite, never rude and nor was he particularly confrontational but there was obvious displeasure in some of his responses during that period and along with rare eye contact and a steely glare, he would on occasion turn questions back on the journalist.

An emphatic return to form restored the peace and then the pandemic-enforced move to Zoom press conferences almost entirely removed any possibility of discourse and often butchered the chance to get Bielsa waxing lyrical on a subject.

Promotion and Leeds’ initially stellar start to Premier League life has made for less fractious conversations, although if he is asked one more time by a national journalist about Patrick Bamford’s chances of playing for England one of the press conference regulars might explod on Bielsa’s behalf.

After games, Bielsa can be a hard nut to crack and nigh on impossible to draw headlines from. There is no bombast, no criticism for referees and no snide comments about the opposition.

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After defeats by Leicester and Crystal Palace, his press conferences were relatively unremarkable, save the Pablo Hernandez discussion, which ultimately went nowhere because Bielsa was saying no more on the subject than to confirm the Spaniard was available but had not been selected.

What followed, however, when Brendan Rodgers and Roy Hodgson replaced him in front of the cameras, was a little more interesting.

Both men had just celebrated 4-1 wins over Leeds United and were asked how pleased they were to overcome a ‘master tactician’ and ‘renowned manager.’

It was a line of questioning that would never have met with Bielsa’s approval – any reference to his revered standing in the game is brushed aside with a modesty that barely allows him to conceal his discomfort.

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Rodgers hinted at perceived slight, while an insulted Hodgson explicitly took issue with it.

The Leicester boss was asked how delighted he was to have overcome three master tacticians of the game this season in Pep Guardiola, Arteta and Bielsa.

The journalist continued: “Tactically you must be enjoying locking horns with some of these big tactical managers this season?”

Rodgers replied: “Probably how it works, because I’m a British manager I probably got lucky, that’s normally the way it works for British managers if they do well in any sort of these games.”

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On Saturday, Hodgson was asked how pleasing it was to get such a result against a renowned coach like Bielsa.

He responded: “That means that people like myself, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola are not renowned managers and it’s only a result when you play against someone you feel is renowned that I should be pleased.

“I regard it as relatively insulting.”

Neither journalist meant to imply that the manager in question compared unfavourably with Bielsa or with foreign coaches but left the door open for a bugbear to burst in.

Whether or not there’s a case to make that the press are guilty of painting British managers as less fashionable or esteemed as Bielsa, Hodgson’s response served as a reminder that while the man who led Leeds to the top flight is undoubtedly a coach of world renown, he is an as-yet unproven newcomer in the Premier League. Bielsa himself reminds us of how little time he has spent in English football.

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Rodgers’ response betrayed his chagrin with a debate, real or perceived, over the ability of foreign managers versus their domestic counterparts.

No such debate should ever exist, the word ‘and’ should be embraced and not the word ‘or’, because the mix of footballing backgrounds and cultures amongst the group of men who lead the 20 Premier League clubs only make the division a more interesting place. Our eternal rush to proclaim something or someone as better than the rest lies at the heart of the irritation felt by the Leicester and Palace bosses. Bielsa, who prefers his style of football but never calls it the correct or superior way to play, would feel it too.

Hodgson summed it up quite neatly to finish his mini-rant: “Two managers who have had a lot of success in the game, we prepared our teams well and we produced a good footballing spectacle.”

That’s cause for celebration, not comparison.

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