"I dream, so I’d better not answer that" — Marcelo Bielsa prepares for the World Cup with Uruguay
"Look, there’s no secret to the way we play," Bielsa said. "But, well, those are intentions, and then we have to make them a reality."
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Marcelo Bielsa is at a predictable centre of attention of Uruguay's World Cup build-up, despite or precisely because he doesn't demand attention in any of the ways modern football media finds acceptable.
Even the Uruguay FA (AUF) have been involved, releasing a video to celebrate their nation's idiosyncrasy that refers to their choice of head coach like this: 'Imagine that — we put a madman in charge ... and on top of that, he’s Argentine.'
And on top of that, he's Marcelo Bielsa, inciting complaints by turning a mandated media duty into a 38 second interview ('How have you worked in these last few days, especially considering the injured players?' 'No issues.') despite already answering all the questions put to him in his preferred format, an hour long press conference.
He's generating anger for not looking happy enough at training. 'He can’t be like that — it’s inhuman. He has not a shred of empathy,' thundered Leonardo Farinella on ESPN. But also fascination for agreeing to appear on a bicycle in the AUF's squad reveal video, and even joking about whether it was really him riding. "You’re in a position to tell whether it was AI or not, unless you don’t think I’m capable of doing what you saw," he told a journalist at his press conference. (The truth is that he was filmed for it, looking over his shoulder and nodding, and that was digitally placed atop a body double on the bike).
He's gone viral in South America for refusing to play along with the 'moving portraits' required for Fifa's pre-match graphics, standing stock still staring at the floor as if he's listening intently to an acquaintance explaining the tragic final moments of a beloved family pet, but in the middle of trying to win a game of musical statues. Fifa must wish they'd done what Sky Sports used to do and photoshopped his head onto someone else's suitclad body, but real fans know what it's about. 'Do you think we should try to cheer him up?' asked one Uruguay fan on social media.
Daniel/Moxco
He has pissed off star player Ronald Araujo's brother, after the Barcelona defender — who was injured with Uruguay at the Copa América — suffered a muscle injury in pre-World Cup training and flew to Madrid for treatment and back again. 'Thanks for injuring players', Ronald's brother wrote then deleted on Instagram, before Ronald rebuked him: "I talked to him about it, and I’ll talk to him again when I get home," said Araujo. "I have a minor calf injury that happened during training. I don’t think it was due to the intensity of the sessions because we keep that under strict control."
While defending Bielsa in that instance, Araujo was also one of the players who had earlier expressed surprise when Bielsa left Nahitan Nández out of the World Cup squad. That was nothing compared to the president of Nández's former club, Peñarol, who was "Boiling with rage". Uruguay's captain José María Giménez also said he was shocked, but turned the question around onto newspaper rumours about Nández's lack of commitment. "I want to make it clear that if you have anything to say about my teammates as people, come and tell me: we’ll sit down, talk it out, and in two minutes I’ll make you apologise publicly."
Bielsa, of course, addressed the topic head on in his pre-World Cup press conference, without waiting to be asked.
"I understand the surprise because Nández was a player who played regularly and was called up regularly," he said, "in the Copa América, he was the best player on the team." Like Giménez, he refuted the idea of any personal problems, describing his efforts to call Nández up for the recent friendly against England as evidence, only for the player's fitness to fail him. For the World Cup, Bielsa said, Nández had a good season for his club in Saudi Arabia, but he listed the three positions he could play — right-wing, right-back and midfield — and listed the three players he has for each position without Nández. Case closed.
Another point Bielsa wanted to clarify was that he was not necessarily, as was widely reported, stepping down as Uruguay coach after the World Cup. At another pre-tournament event he had described the World Cup as "the culmination of the work we have been doing". Everyone took that to mean he was finishing.
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