Marcelo Bielsa gives key injury updates plus views on Newcastle signings and (not) postponing matches | OneFootball

Marcelo Bielsa is always good value.

Whether that is watching his team play their high pressing, highly entertaining style of football.

Or alternatively, when Marcelo Bielsa is talking about his team playing their high risk football and his whole philosophy / opinions on playing the game.

On Thursday afternoon, the Leeds boss has taken his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Newcastle on Saturday.

Marcelo Bielsa giving an injury update, including revealing that Patrick Bamford has now picked up a new injury, the striker having sorted his original issues, only for a new one to rule him out of this match against Newcastle. Indeed, Bamford’s last start was back in September, the 1-1 draw at St James Park.

Marcelo Bielsa also discussing Newcastle’s January signings and the issues surrounding postponing matches (or not).

This is how the current Premier League table looks ahead of Leeds v Newcastle:

After three wins in the opening 18 Premier League matches for Leeds, it just shows how quickly things can change with Marcelo Bielsa and his players winning their 19th and 20th PL games of the season, 3-1 at home to Burnley and 3-2 at West Ham.

Those two wins meaning Leeds are suddenly nine points clear of relegation and ten points ahead of Newcastle.

Marcelo Bielsa pre-Newcastle United press conference, as reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post – 20 January 2022:

How different a proposition are Newcastle United now, having signed two players?

“With respect to the players that they’ve brought in, their positions are very specific. A right full-back and a centre-forward.

“It’s their centre-forward [Chris Wood] who comes to replace the player [Callum Wilson] who usually plays in that position. They’re both classic centre-forwards, even if they have different characteristics, they both play as centre-forwards.

“The same with their right full-back [Kieran Trippier], who plays at different heights down the right hand side.

“Those two signings are, from my point of view – and only with the rush to answer your question – because it is very difficult to interpret the opponent’s coach, and it is also inconvenient – but from my point of view, the players don’t alter the way Newcastle play, but the individualities who enrich a squad.”

“Forshaw and Firpo have muscular injuries.

“Bamford has a new injury at the bottom of his foot. He’s overcome his muscular problems but now he has an issue at the bottom of his foot.

“It’s likely that for the game on the weekend that we’re going to recover Rodrigo, Roberts and Gelhardt. So the players out of the squad in that position are going to be Patrick Bamford and Sam Greenwood. Progressively, we have been resolving the situations that present themselves.

“The same with the absence of Pascal, Cooper, Diego, Koch. We’ve been resolving them with the contribution of Ayling as a centre-back and Koch as a defensive mid when he has been healthy, Forshaw as a defensive mid.

“It’s also true that all the clubs have problems with counting on all of their players.”

Do you feel postponement has been abused this season and are you surprised that more clubs haven’t used youth?

“I don’t think so…but it’s not important what I think.

“The important thing is to trust those who administer the rules in that sense, because there’s rules that define whether a game or cannot be suspended, and the condition you have to demonstrate for the game to be suspended, and because I trust in those who administer these decisions, and so I trust that when games were suspended, they met the criteria for them to be suspended.

“The question is not do the clubs take advantage of the rules, but it’s the question of if those who evaluate them, do well or badly.

“For a club to take advantage, there has to be an evaluation that was wrong or mistaken, because the rules have to be sufficiently clear.”