What Marcelo Bielsa said about player confidence, facing criticism and two returnees in his pre-Spurs press conference

The procedures that I propose are those that I believe in. My function is to convince, but I can’t convince by trying to give procedures that I don’t believe in. Anything that I say in this moment, the only thing that it will generate is opinions against it. difference with respect to the opponent that you come up against that you can utilise but that we never utilise because I think that you have to interpret football in a different way. I insist that anything I say right now is going to be read as an excuse or it’s going to be criticised ferociously, with a ferociousness that the moment deserves. but of one thing I am convinced, that what we do I’m going to try to do it better. It’s not abandoning procedures that have been improved that have come out in practice. How I think the sporting crises are resolved. anything that I say now I’m already imagining the responses that discredit what I say because I’ve been doing this job for a long time and I’ve gone through this dialogue many times. With short answer, because anything that I say will have a strong response - that we have conceded over 50 goals. Exceptional situations, exceptional responses. So I know that I don’t have any options to be exempt through my responses. What corresponds - it’s good that it’s that way - is to generate results.

Any explanation that I may give, I try not to give excuses but to explain. When you go through negative moments, any explanation that you give is rejected. What I said was that in our squad the position of right back, left back, and centre back have five players that play those positions. Those positions are occupied by Llorente, Pascal, Koch, Phillips and Cooper. The sixth player that we added for that position is .... who is a young player. Leeds can’t have too players of a high level for every position. So in the case of this position, we have five players of top level, and a sixth one, a young one. Of those six players, at the same time, five were missing. So that situation I resolved by putting Ayling as a centre back and putting Forshaw as a defensive mid. In a game like the last one, the players that shone the most were precisely those two. In the game against Manchester United, the same. Sometimes the resolution of the problems depends on those who are available. But of course, you guys will have other arguments over whether the marking is person or not, or if we should play in our own half or in the opponent’s half, or if we should try to manage the ball less so that we lose it less. All of the things that, when they came out well, were praised - when they come out wrong, they demand it. And of course, that is normal. So what you’re asking me is, are we going to play in our own half, if we’re going to mark zonally, if we’re going to stop having management of the ball? By those parts, are we going to improve our defensive function? So that you can also defend set pieces better. In these four years, I have received criticisms or demands that are exactly the same. In this case, they are a lot more justified because the consequences of what is being done badly are a lot bigger. But they’re the same problems that at some point we have already suffered and were able to overcome. When we go through moments like this, the confidence is lost on the leader, it’s natural, it’s logical. How can I defend myself when we’re the team that has conceded the most goals in the Premier League? Not all of the errors happened for that to have happened and I daily try to resolve. In the most difficult situation, because I re-iterate, when you’re the conductor in a bad situation, no one trusts what you’re saying. What I’m also sure of is that if I stop doing what I believe in - which is what you’re asking - the situation, instead of improving, is going to be even worse. The question is not of changing how we proceed, but that our procedures work.

I’m a normal person, I do a job that has a lot of repercussions. Like all the people who are not able to offer the results that are expected, situation that I’m going through is similar to that of a common person, when they are not able to achieve, or they are not achieving how they should. the repercussion of my task is the big difference and I’m used to living or transiting through these situations.

Very worried. The worry is proportional to the results that we have been obtaining.

Marcelo Bielsa takes his seat.