Marcelo Bielsa's Art of Transitions: The Concept Originating from Futsal

  

Leeds United pulled off a shock win against the formidable Premier League leaders Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola met with his idol once again in the form of Argentine madman manager Marcelo Bielsa. Both coaches demand ruthless attacking football but the deciding factor of most of their head to heads and other Bielsa games is the ability of the team to transition from defence to attack expeditiously.

This principle was popularised and formed as a result of futsal. The 5-a-side game sparks incredible commitment from individuals, requiring them to move around the pitch excessively and pose a threatening presence.

Futsal also entails for tremendous technique with possession caused by the tight spaces and the need to pass the ball before the incoming opponents obtains the ball. The Bielsa-Guardiola philosophy summates and corresponds with futsal.

Bielsa's Relentless Style:

The former Athletic Club coach has a philosophy that implies aggressive work rate and ultimately defensive chaos on the pitch. It is made to send his opponents to hell and cheaply give away the football.

This high energy pressing work ethic throughout the game is what a team requires in futsal. A player would close down the player sharply and sprint to follow his man. 

Defensively despite the urge to run, he wants his players to cleverly cover the spaces when not involved within the play and force the opponent with the ball to make a costly decision.

Leeds United and Bielsa have also brought something obscured to the English Football in the form of the 3-3-1-3 in which the personnel in each of the line sin the formation  are interchangeable.

Rotation and positional tactics are just as prioritised by the Argentine in both aspects of the game. His 2nd 3 in the formation look to utilise the spaces in behind the opposition midfielders while Bielsa insists that the striker and wingers stretch the defensive line of the opposition out vertically and horizontally. This is combined with 'Bielsa Ball' where the team plays around quickly until an opening is found while retaining possession, which is similar to Pep Guardiola and his Barcelona side where Messi, Xavi and Iniesta would wait for the right time to clinically pounce. The difference is that Bielsa demands that shots are taken inside the box due to the high probability of long distance shots missing.

The majority of these concepts that are being applied in the Leeds game link directly to futsal (demonstrated in the Levante vs Barça analysis diagrams above). Argentina is amongst the South American countries that play futsal regularly and founded the sport. So, perhaps the story behind this mastermind is somewhat influenced by futsal.

Additionally, the 65-year-old from Rosario incorporates a cynical training drill in his regime called 'Murder Ball', designed meticulously by Bielsa. The drill is quite self-explanatory with the squad playing an 11v11 full stop with no rests at a self-imposed high intensity and constant running. According to LeedsLive,  "It depends on the training how long he wants us to play. It could be five times six minutes, or one times 20 minutes. It just depends what Marcelo wants. Even if the ball goes out, there's a member of staff waiting with another ball to put in. You can't stop." 

This correlates almost identically with futsal as players are challenged to the arduous task of competing at rocketing intensities for 5 or more minutes at a time until they are substituted.

The Leeds squad underwent a major fitness transformation in Bielsa’s first summer in charge showing another footballing obsession of his, involving fitness. Fitness is important for Marcelo Bielsa to develop continuous transitions that are deeply significant like in futsal and effect the result if executed correctly with speed.

The Leeds manager is also unique because of his influential tone around the club and individually to players. Goalscorer against Manchester City Dallas described his coach in his most recent interview as an immensely predominant character in the dressing room, "He gives us, as players, the belief. He does everything he can, him and his staff throughout the week, to give us the best opportunity to go to these places and get a result. I'm sure he may not take credit for getting that result but believe me he had a big part to play in it."

Team values and beliefs that Bielsa has reinstalled within a previously Championship side has depicted them positively despite their goal-fest futsal like games.

There is an abundance of previous futsal players that the two coaches have managed in Spain and across the world as we see philosophies and tradition develop and the game of football change.

Arsenxl, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons