The recently-appointed Baggies boss is fascinated by the approach of the Whites coach, who deploys his team to all-out attack
New West Bromwich coach Sam Allardyce says he is yet to understand why Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa is ‘so crazy’, but praised the Argentine for how he sets out his team.
Bielsa’s Leeds have earned a reputation as the Premier League’s entertainers – having conceded the equal-most goals in the division with 30, but scoring 25 of their own.
Speaking after the Baggies snared a point against Liverpool in only his second game in charge, Allardyce revealed his thoughts on Leeds’ unique style of play, praising Bielsa’s eccentric game plan as being fitting of the club he leads.
“I’ve got to work out why he’s so crazy,” Allardyce told reporters as he prepares for West Brom‘s clash with Leeds at the Hawthorns on December 29.
“It’s not ‘crazy’, it’s more his intelligence and his unique style, and I think that it serves the players and serves the club in good stead.”
Allardyce said he planned to closely examine Leeds’ 1-0 win over Burnley on Sunday – revealing he thought the Clarets were unlucky to suffer a defeat.
The English tactician revealed he will focus on exploiting Leeds’ tendency to push many numbers forward by hitting them on the counter-attack, but also to remain solid in defence themselves.
“It will be an interesting thought from myself tomorrow, when we get in and look at how they play,” Allardyce said.
“We’ve got an idea. I watched them a little bit on the telly [on Sunday] against Burnley, I thought Burnley were robbed of a goal.
“We have to find a way of finding out how we can score against them, which sometimes seems pretty easy, but it’s never going to be as easy as that.
“In the opposite sense, they try and go out and score as many goals as they possibly can, so we’ve got to cancel that out.
“When you’re going to play against Leeds you know that we are trying to stop them being as adventurous as they are, but also, can we expose the weaknesses and the gaps and spaces that they leave when they do go all-out attack?”
West Brom currently sit in the relegation zone with eight points from 15 matches and are five adrift of Burnley, who occupy the last position of safety.
Be the first to comment