Marcelo Bielsa spot on to defend Leeds United players mental application

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Leeds United now look likely to take their fight for promotion to the Premier League to the play-offs. The Whites followed up a shock home loss to Wigan Athletic with a tepid 2-0 negative result at Griffin Park. Marcelo Bielsa’s men might have to go to Wembley to achieve their dream.

The instant response from many rival fans, who rarely have a kind word to say about Leeds, has been to label them ‘bottlers’.

But Marcelo Bielsa, speaking after the Brentford game, was quick to make sure nobody questioned the mental resilience of his players. He spoke to the Yorkshire Evening Post of how the team has managed to hide certain limitations with their mental application throughout the season.

“Of course the team has limits but that has nothing to do with any mental aspect. I’d almost say the opposite. This team has hidden many limits with a huge effort.”

TBR’s View

Bielsa is absolutely right. Nobody really expected Leeds to be in a race for the automatic places this season, just from looking at the squad at their disposal. Largely, this is the same team that finished 13th last term.

When you begin to consider other stumbling blocks that got in Leeds’ way, it is miraculous they are still in with a shout of the automatic places.

Massive injury troubles saw Bielsa dip into the reserves. One of those injured for long periods of time was Patrick Bamford, the man charged with scoring the goals for Leeds. Another was Kemar Roofe, the player who was scoring the goals. The likes of Jamie Shackleton, Robbie Gotts, Leif Davis, Will Huffer, and Aapo Halme have all made appearances this season Leeds fans would not have expected.

On top of injuries, Leeds have had to contend with Spygate, Samuel Saiz’s departure, the collapse of the Daniel James deal and the frightening illness suffered by Jack Clarke.

Leeds have performed against all odds to get where they are. To label them bottlers now would certainly require selective memory.