"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."
Tag
Essays
A collection of 192 posts
The sound of Goal!, the World Cup and the people and their feet
Players aren't on the list, let alone given a close-up in sight or sound: it's everything but the game. Zoom in and overdub them if you have to, but I'm yearning for this World Cup to give me lingering long takes over the knees of Ao Tanaka.
2025/26 reviewed: Upstairs, downstairs
Tactics, strategy and many, many PowerPoints. We got a new team and we're getting a new West Stand, so how are things looking in the manager's office and the boardroom?
2025/26 reviewed: Going forward
One by one, and goal by goal, let's rate Leeds United's attackers from last season in descending order of how many minutes they played.
2025/26 reviewed: In the thick of things
Nobody could get through Leeds United's midfield last season, but we can go through them now, one by one in descending order of minutes, to remember how they get on.
2025/26 reviewed: players at the back
Let's go through Leeds United's tacklers, blockers and catchers of the season, one by one, in descending order of minutes played.
Ambition, and how it is paid for
Daniel Farke has made some very reasonable, fan-friendly requests and pegged them to 49ers Enterprises' ambition. Any failure to agree now will be interpreted as the owners' ambition falling short of the manager's — and the fans'.
How more Spygate makes Marcelo Bielsa even more right
I suspect Kim Hellberg's emotional response to feeling cheated by Tonda Eckert is the same reaction many coaches have felt, over the years, but when seeing their best ideas reduced to dust by the sheer weight of work Bielsa puts up against them.
Dan James scored a great goal for Wales, amid the thieves of joy
Leeds can hand Dan James a laptop full of shot-data analysis, remind him of his triple play-off pain and the scar running down his brow, give him a brick and ten minutes and let him get it all out of his system.
Making no mistakes
A lot of us spent the 2010s pleading with Leeds United to even vaguely gesture towards being normal, and now here they are at last: officially not a laughing stock.