Tough times but Leeds United retain their trust in Marcelo Bielsa

As the final whistle mercifully blew on a week Leeds United lost 11-1, the scenes at Elland Road were incredible.

Questions are being asked about Marcelo Bielsa and rightly. In the last seven days it was a tight run thing between what was worse: his luck or his team. A season that started with hopes of Europe, certainly of another top-half finish, sees them go into Christmas 16th in the Premier League with the two teams directly below having games in hand to put them in the relegation zone.

Bielsa showed in the pre-match press conference how irritated he is at having his future constantly questioned – which human would not be? – but is a realist, always quick to take responsibility, to own up to failings whether or not they always exist. “Do you think I’m so vain that I don’t think I can be sacked?” he asked spikily.

If a Leeds team who looked far more makeshift even than it was failed to provide with the pick-me-up he needed the most – only losing 4-1 to Arsenal because unlike those meanies at Manchester City, Mikel Arteta’s side decided to take it easy on them and preserve a bit of second-half energy – the supporters stepped up.

Plenty of seats emptied once Emile Smith Rowe scored the 84th-minute goal which laid bare Leeds’s defensive deficiencies one last time.

One was empty because a supporter who apparently remembered his Covid pass but forgot his brain thought it was a good idea to shout something at the Arsenal players warming up which is inappropriate anywhere in Britain in the 21st Century but even more so at a football ground which hosts a multi-coloured team heavily reliant on Argentinian genius in the dugout, Brazilian flair in the forward line and French skill in goal in the absence of Kalvin Phillips’s Yorkshire grit for what we fear will be months.

The Elland Road charge sheet is mounting after this month’s homophobic chants at Conor Gallagher and the investigation into whether objects were thrown at Brentford’s players.

So Leeds fans are not perfect but the vast majority smothered themselves in huge credit in adversity. They also got to their feet when Smith Rowe scored but instead of heading for the exits twirled their scarves and chanted their support until long after the final whistle. What they yelled throughout a cold evening was significant. “We’re Leeds and we’re proud of it” got plenty of airings, but so did “Marcelo Bielsa”.

It probably bettered the defiant devotion shown as the team lost 7-0 at Eastlands days before, and that is saying something.

“It’s not easy when a team has conceded 11 goals in two games, or 14 in three,” acknowledged the coach. “It generated support that was so moving for the team. In these times now it is very difficult for something like that to happen. When I say now, I mean in this situation any (criticism) from the fans would be justified. To not let go of the hand of the team you love is very, very big.”

Arsenal’s stellar display was as good an advert as any for standing by the manager at a club with a more hysterical fringe than many. That said, Leeds were as much architects of their own downfall as either them or the circumstances.

A shoulder problem for Charlie Cresswell – earmarked to play after Jamie Shackleton’s Achilles injury and Junior Firpo’s suspension-drawing booking on Tuesday – in the last minute of Thursday’s training took the toll to eight injured plus one with Covid (Diego Llorente). The other way around and the game would have been postponed, like the day’s other five Premier League fixtures.

Cody Drameh had to make a first Premier League start, Joe Gelhardt (who won the penalty Raphinha emphatically converted) a second, Jack Harrison played at least 20 minutes longer than he should after a blow to the hip, surrendering possession for Arsenal’s opener in that time, and Sam Greenwood and Liam McCarron made debuts from a bench whose average age was dragged below 19 by Archie Gray, Eddie’s 15-year-old grandson.

But the goals came when Leeds turned the ball over sloppily, failed to cut out straight balls which seemed to pass through a 4-0-3-1 formation at times and –never more so than for the third, scored by Bukayo Saka with a deflection – failed to close down the man on the ball aggressively.

Illan Meslier made some good saves, mainly low down, to stop the game spiralling from certain defeat to check-the-record-books territory even by half-time as Leeds fell into the trap they did most notably at Old Trafford and at home to Liverpool of creating an extremely open game that played into the hands of exceptional opposition attackers. Raphinha’s counter-attacking threat was serious, but sporadic; Arsenal’s was relentless.

Any club would struggle without 10 players, especially against opponents with the Gunners’ confidence, but none has chosen to go into the season with a squad as shallow as Bielsa’s.

So he is not blameless for this mess but the people who matter trust him to get them out of it. Marching on together is a lot easier than ploughing on alone.