Paul Merson’s latest comments on Leeds and Bielsa are likely to anger Whites fans – TBR View

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Just the other day, Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa hit back at the sections of the media criticising his style of play.

Ahead of the Whites’ Premier League meeting with Burnley on Sunday, Bielsa accused critics of the team’s tactics of trying to “destabilise” their players, as reported by BBC Sport.

The Argentine stressed that he does not value style over substance, saying any such perception is wrong, and called such criticism “another way to try to ridicule me”.

Bielsa has transformed Leeds since his arrival in 2018, turning the Elland Road side from a mid-table Championship side into playoff contenders and, the following year, title winners.

And while the Whites are far from the finished product and have conceded a fair few goals over this season, you’d struggle to find many Leeds fans who have lost faith in Bielsa.

On Friday, Paul Merson ripped into Leeds and Bielsa in his latest Daily Star column, claiming their way of football is “madness” and saying they “can’t keep on playing like this”.

He added: “If I’m a Leeds fan, I don’t want to be getting smashed by United. I don’t care how nice the football is.”

Such comments are pretty much exactly what Bielsa was talking about – continued strong criticism of what Leeds are doing, which could “decrease the capacity to understand for the public” and destabilise the Leeds players.

Admittedly, Merson did make one half-decent point, namely “everyone has caught on to how Leeds play. Every team is now playing players against them who are good one-on-one and have pace”.

But let’s face it, this is pretty much stating the obvious, and it’s not like Bielsa and his coaches won’t know this and be working on the training ground to counter this.

It’s worth remembering that, prior to Liverpool’s Champions League win in 2019, the knives were constantly out for Jurgen Klopp, with sections of the media slamming him for not having won anything in nearly four years.

And since then, the Anfield side has pretty much carried out a clean sweep of all the major trophies in a short space of time – and who won the Best FIFA coach award this year? Take a guess.

Leeds have done pretty well so far, Bielsa hasn’t gone against his principles, the players and most of the fans support him fully, and though results haven’t been the best, the long-term vision at Elland Road is optimistic and exciting.