Leeds United: Marcelo Bielsa wants football to ‘adapt’ and stop penalising defenders

Marcelo Bielsa says dealing with physical strikers like West Ham United’s Michail Antonio is even harder because referees do not allow defenders to compete on equal terms.

Former Sheffield Wednesday player Antonio scored the 90th-minute winner when West Ham met Leeds United at Elland Road in September, one of eight goals which make him the joint second-highest scorer in this season’s Premier League behind Yorkshireman Jamie Vardy.

For the second Sunday in a row, Leeds’s defenders will have to try to contain Antonio at the London Stadium, this time in the Premier League.

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Asked how difficult that would be, Bielsa referred to the part the officials play.

Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa. Picture Bruce RollinsonLeeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa. Picture Bruce Rollinson
Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa. Picture Bruce Rollinson

“We have to see how the rules interpret the situations that happen,” he replied.

“When a striker moves a defender away normally it is not a foul but when a defender moves a striker away using their arms, for example, it is so it is clear even though the rule is for all the players, in practice it is applied differently.

“I’m not saying it is bad or good, I am saying this is what happens.

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“In the game against Burnley there were also a lot of actions of that type.

“We have to learn to adapt to a reality you can see clearly.

“At set-pieces, for example, when an opponent obstructs the movement of a defender to lose their marker, there’s an infinite amount of those actions not sanctioned but if that same thing happens outside of the box, it is normally a foul.

“The same thing happens when you put yourself in the way of the goalkeeper. When an opponent is positioned where he is going to get himself in his path, intentionally, that’s how obstruction is described but the goalkeepers suffer this constantly and they never blow for this.

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“So I think you have to adapt and understand the criteria. VAR (the video assistant referee system) has the possibility to verify all of this.”

Centre-back Pascal Struijk is one of three injured players, along with Rodrigo and Patrick Bamford, who could be back to reinforce a depleted Leeds squad, which will be without the suspended Diego Llorente and the injured Liam Cooper and Charlie Cresswell. They will also be missing Cody Drameh, who has joined Cardiff City on loan, a move Bielsa was not in favour of, but felt it was best to agree to.

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