Leeds United v Manchester United: Marcelo Bielsa relishing a proper ‘classico’ at Elland Road

LEEDS UNITED versus Manchester United has always been hard to categorise. Geography tells you it is not quite a derby, but it certainly has a derby feel.

For once in Marcelo Bielsa’s press conferences – and only temporarily – his translator Andres Clavijo is not needed. Bielsa’s word “classico” does the game more justice than any English translation the man sat to his left is able to provide.

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Tomorrow will witness Elland Road’s first proper “classico” for 19 years. No one on either side and only a couple in the away dugout have witnessed this before but Bielsa believes his players will instinctively know what is coming their way.

Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa. Picture: PA.Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa. Picture: PA.
Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa. Picture: PA.
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“The players in general know the type of game they’re going to come up against,” he insists.

The sides have met in West Yorkshire since Roy Keane’s 81st-minute goal settled the October 2003 Premier League game, but they have been phoney wars. The Red Devils taken to extra-time 10 days later in the League Cup had a distinctly second-string feel about them, as did the side that played there in the same competition eight years later. April’s 0-0 Premier League draw was desperately lacking the passion of supporters.

There are no such excuses tomorrow. Two teams who have not done as well as they ought to have this season will be desperate for the three points and Elland Road will be bouncing.

To put it mildly, Bielsa was not in a very talkative mood in his pre-match press conference but it was still very obvious he will not be playing the, “Just another game, lads” card, when he speaks to his team shortly before 2pm.

Dan James.   Picture Bruce RollinsonDan James.   Picture Bruce Rollinson
Dan James. Picture Bruce Rollinson
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“A classic game is always a challenge that is very motivating,” says a man who steadfastly refuses to draw comparisons with the other such matches he has experienced in a coaching career which has drawn the studious Argentinian to passionate football clubs.

“The defeats against those classic opponents are not the same as the others.”

Yorkshire versus Lancashire always provides a bit of an edge but once the fans are thrown into the mix, this contest has been visceral at least since the days when Don Revie transformed the Whites into the Leeds United we know today.

Back in the 1960s family feuds added to the battle for supremacy between two of the best teams in the country – the antipathy between the Charlton brothers, no holds barred when brothers-in-law Johnny Giles and Nobby Stiles did midfield battle in the days when that term was more literal. Roy Keane versus Alf Inge Haaland (part one) showed it was not just a black-and-white relic.

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Unlike the rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United, there has been a regular flow of transfers to stir the pot too.

The perceived treachery of one-time Leeds heroes Joe Jordan, Gordon McQueen, Eric Cantona, Rio Ferdinand and Alan Smith hit hard. Leeds got some pretty good transfers out of it too, Giles having felt under-appreciated at Old Trafford showing himself to be one of the greatest players in the country whilst winning silverware his old club coveted in the 60s and 70s, Gordon Strachan showing Alex Ferguson had written him off too soon by parading the Football League trophy around West Yorkshire in 1992.

Dan James showed in August it is still possible to move between these bitter rivals but the dynamics have changed over time, the game less combative than it was, the cosmopolitan nature of dressing rooms watering down the emotions. With Kalvin Phillips and Liam Cooper injured, Hull-born James could be the only Yorkshireman in white, Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominay the only Lancastrians.

There are always sub-plots, though.

Former Sporting Lisbon team-mates Raphinha and Bruno Fernandes are, like Giles and Stiles were, close friends unless for some unfathomable reason you are reading this between 2pm and 3.50pm on Sunday.

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As last season showed, it is the fans who make this a classico.

“It’s what the fans give always,” says Bielsa of the raucous atmospheres Elland Road has produced this season in spite of a relegation battle. “They always support the team unconditionally. It’s difficult to imagine a support bigger or better.

“The presence of a classic opponent increases the enthusiasm.

“We think more about what we give to the public than what we receive from them.”

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With only three Premier League home wins, their support has not been rewarded enough this season.

They are owed this.

Too often this Roses rivalry oversteps the mark, and we can only hope tomorrow is not one of those but this sanitised 21st Century Premier League has been poorer without the raw passion of a genuine classico.

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