Marcelo Bielsa: The full transcript of the Leeds manager’s incredible press conference addressing ‘spygate’

Marcelo Bielsa: The full transcript of the Leeds manager’s incredible press conference addressing ‘spygate’
Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa called an impromptu press conference on Wednesday to discuss the much-debated ‘spygate’ incident.Bielsa hasaccepted full responsibilityfor employing a member of staff to watch Derby train ahead of their 2-0 win last Friday,although he insists he has done nothing illegal.The EFL and Football Association have now launched a formal investigation into the Whites, who lie four points clear at the top of the Championship.Bielsa issued a defence of his work, while giving an fascinating insight into just how much preparation he puts into analysing each opponent he faces.Below is the full transcript from the incredible press conference…

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Bielsa begins….

“I called this press conference because we have the classic press conference before playing Stoke City.“And I thought the spy matter would take time I would like to dedicate to the game.“My goal regarding this situation of which I am the only one responsible.“I wouldnt like to mix it with the games and the play.“And if you allow me I would like to make a summary of what happened.“Its about watching from a public space an activity that is realised in a private space without the agreement with the goal of both gaining sports advantage and hurting the fair play.“I already said I was the only one responsible for this situation.“The club is not responsible whatsoever and nobody on my staff is responsible for it.“The person who did that followed my orders and I am the only one responsible.“Many people made an opinion on my behaviour. Many expressing, condemning the behaviour, saying that it was not ethical, that it was immoral.“That it was violating of affecting fair play. That it was cheating.“This club thought it was obliged to present public excuses to Derby County.“And I was publicly told that my behaviour was not respecting the principles of integrity which is the basis of the club.6

Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa called an impromptu press conference on Thursday

“Many managers, ex-footballers and footballers thought my behaviour was respectfulness.“The last point of this situation is that the league after a complaint made by Derby County decided to open an investigation on my behaviour.“So they will evaluate if I behaved bad and if my behaviour affected the prestige of the club or the league.“One other point I would like to talk about is that Im going to make it easier for the investigation of the league.“Im going to give the information it needs and I assume the fact that my behaviour is heard from the most extreme position.“In a few words I can tell you we observed all the rivals we played against and we watched all the training sessions of the opponents before we played against them.“My goal is to make the investigation easier and I dont think that something is going to make worse what they are looking for than what Im saying right now.“By doing that I assume the possible sanction of the authorities.“I dont want to compare my behaviour, my situation with previous behaviours regarding this subject.6

The Whites are four points clear at the top of the Championship

“Ive heard that there are other behaviours which also effect the fair play but I dont want to defame myself by attacking others.“I dont want to point to any other situation that is not linked to my responsibility.“Regarding what Ive done, its not illegal. Its not specified, its not described, its not restrained.“We can discuss it, its not seen as a good thing, but its not a violation of the law.“I know that not everything thats legal is not right to do.“You have many things that are legal, but not right.“This is true as the fact that all the wrong things you do are not done with bad intention.“Those who behave bad, regarding the subject we talk about, getting information, advantages with what is called cheating behaviour.“Thats why I repeat again, its not because its legal that its the right thing to do.“And its not because you have a wrong behaviour that you have bad intentions or the intention to cheat.”

Clarifying why he sent a member of his staff to watch Derby training

“Of course if you observe the situation, we call it spying and we say its spying.“I cant say its the right thing to do.“What Im trying to explain, I didnt have bad intentions and I didnt try to get an unfair sports advantage.“I did it because it was not illegal and not violating a specific norm.“You have norms that are linked to habits, you have norms that are linked to social condemnation ad you have norms linked to what the law says.

Bielsa discusses Lampard …

“Of course I have a point of view, but it;s not important to other points of view. (Frank) Lampard says he doesnt believe I have bad intentions.“He believes that I violated the fair play spirit so I have to adapt to the rules that are linked to English football.“Nobody ignores that all professional members of football want to work in English football.“We have some conclusions, we have some analysis that says the Championship is the 6th biggest competition in the world. With very strong arguments.“If the authorities want to protect the competition, condemning those who behave with bad intentions or those who affect the prestige of the league with their behaviour, they create a product with occupies the space it occupies.“So we have to respect the procedures that are chosen and the sanctions on those who make mistakes.“I regret to make the exposition I made now, because I don’t like to talk about me because as for my job.6

Frank Lampard was left infuriated after the intruder, a member of Leeds’ staff, was caught spying on a derby training session

“As I am overexposed to the media, I dont like being in the media too much.“But this explanation is important. When you watch an opponent.“Youre looking for specific information.“You want to know the starting XI, the tactical system they will use and the strategic decisions on set pieces.“These are the 3 main axis that the head coach usually analyses. When you watch the activity of the opponent, you get this kind of information the day before the game or you confirm the information you already have.“Obviously its not information that allows you to build a project which allows you to analyse the game. This is not the norm.“I repeat again: Im not trying to justify my behaviour. As Lampard said, but behaviour cannot be justified.“And that he does not accept the explanation I gave. And he said the information allowed him to know how to train a team abroad one day.”

Addressing the depth of his knowledge…

“When I say that I know that people laugh at you when you create this much data.“When you have strong data, it allows you to make a caricature of the one who is saying that.“I am good at give others the opportunity to characterise myself.“I will tell you the info we gather from opponent….”(walks over to presentation)

WATCH: Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa on his approach to tactics & analysis in the wake of Spy Gate.Hard to do this justice in two minutes (he spoke for well over an hour) but heres a snippet…. #lufc pic.twitter.com/hnluD564Vh— West Yorkshire Sport (@WYSdaily) January 16, 2019

Bielsa starts going through his Powerpoint presentation…

“Of each opponent we watched all of the games form the 2017-18 season.“The 51 games of Derby County. We watched them. The analysis of each game takes 4 hours of work.“Why did we do that? Because we think this is professional behaviour.”

He now goes through his analysis…

“We try not to be ignorant of the competition we play in.Tell me any game, point to any game. (19, says a journalist)“This is the analysis of the game. Both starting teams. All the data of the game, taking into the account the tactical scheme of the opponent.“Would you like to see another game? (number 12, Man United vs Derby)“Im trying to convince you what I said is true. This is the same analysis.“We watch the players in the 51 games, those who are still playing for Derby County.“The other thing we do is point out the chances to score, the half chances to score and which team dominates every five minutes.“Thats why it takes 4 hours to analyse each game. This is not very useful.“It doesnt put you in better conditions to win a game. But the way to respect the way football receives you is to make the effort to know the players and the teams.”

More analysis….

“I cant speak English, but I can speak about the 24 teams of the Champonship.“The only goal of this is to see what were the positions of the players still in Derby from last year.“We also do video analysis where we register the goals, chances, and thats why it takes four hours to analyse the game.“Its a process, a way to get to know the opponent.“This document allows us to know if one player has missed some games, if another has played or missed games.“We see for example, he played against us then not anymore and we can express all these parameters with this graphic.6

Bielsa is a huge fans favourite with Leeds fans – and will be even more so after this amazing coaching masterclass

“I feel ashamed to have to tell you all this.“Lets talk about the analysis that Derby played this season.“They played 31 games. 49% they used a 4-3-3 system with No 8 on the right.“In 22% a 4-3-3- but with the No 8 on the left.“Same for the 4-2-1-3, with the no 8 on the right and left.“They also used structures, 3%, 2%, but theyre not significant.“Before the game we knew perfectly that they would use these kind of systems.”

Bielsa continues with his coaching masterclass…

“These structures gives you fixed priorities and we here have the minutes and the games to understand why Derby changes the system and when.“If they change the system to keep a result or to try to score.“We also analyse if the changes are to give an offensive profile to the team or to give defensive strength. And if these changes work or not.“We also gather this kind of information. The structures Derby play against.“Why do we look at this? The idea is to try to observe what is the most difficult structure for them to face?“I would to explain that all this information, I dont memorise it. All the information that this report has responds to the questions I have asked myself over the last 30 years.

MB going into detail on his homework on Derby #lufc pic.twitter.com/Wkchni9RyN— Adam Pope (@apopey) January 16, 2019

“If you ask me the most difficult system for Derby to play against, I dont have it in my mind.“I can ask and look at the document. I know I have the answer.“How do we gather all this information. From the analysis if the 31 game.“Give me a number please. Im doing this because I consider you dont believe me.“I want to give you factual elements to convince you Im telling the truth.“Give me a number of Ill carry one. (number 27 – vs Bristol City).“This is the tactical analysis. This is the document. Have a look. The analysis of chances, goals, domination.“We see in each segment of 5 minutes, who dominates and if they create chances.”

Video analysis begins…

“Now lets have a look at the video of this game. We know what this player will do when he raises both hands. I know that and so do all the Championship head coaches.“This same game, in order to make our players understand it, we put the name of each player – a player cannot watch more than 10 or 15 minutes.“If you dont help a player with the rivals name, you cannot analysis each player .(shows video)“As you can see, you have 40 minutes of offensive action from Derby from 31 games. When you see 41 minutes of attack, you see what is the path for the opponent to attack.“And if you do the same thing analysing what were the chances considered by Derby County, you see the defensive weaknesses that they do.

MB shows us how he analyses opponent without watching training. He talks about analysis …. pic.twitter.com/xhLD9UEXKD— Adam Pope (@apopey) January 16, 2019

“Our goal is to sum up in 7 or 8 minutes to show to the player how Derby attack.“We also make a 7 or 8 minutes video showing the defensive weaknesses.“The goal of this analysis is to allow our players to have an idea of the opponent in 15 minutes.“We know Derby for 90% of the game use four systems. Here we have a table where we see each of these four systems.“We see who plays in the 4-3-3. In red we have the usual starters and the second players are the subs and the third or fourth players play less.“If you want to have synthesis of the 31 games of Derby, we have them in this document.“For the 5th system we use, we also have this document. This is another way to see the same information on this document.”

Player analysis now starts…

“Now lets look at the tactical analysis.“These are the players who play in different positions. These are the four basic systems.“We look at each player and I know how many minutes each player plays in each position.“Lets look at each player. He played 1,772 minutes as a left back and 70 minutes as a left winger.“This player played as a left offensive midfielder, as a no 8 on the left and on the right, a no 4 on the centre right, as left winger and as winger-midfielder on the right.“With this info we know his main positions are the first three.“Another player. (Harry) Wilson. He plays as a right and left winger and as an offensive midfielder on the left.“All the data we can have, we have on a document and we know about his past. This document allows us to understand the question we have.

All the data on Harry Wilson is laid before us. He knew everything about the player who didnt play Bielsa as planned this superbly. Masterclass in teaching a lot of lessons to a lot of people at the same time. #lufc pic.twitter.com/rNJsQMgWsr— Adam Pope (@apopey) January 16, 2019

“These are the goalkeepers, the right-backs, the left-backs. This is the centre-back on the right and on the left. We do this for each position.“We analyse each position. Lets look at the wingers.“Against Derby, Alioski played as a left-back. So who could play against him? No 20, 11, 7 and the player who played the least at the end of the day, played the game actually.“So this is a no 9, plays on the left and on the right.”“To sum up, these are the players and we have the position which they played.These are the players that were at Derby last year, the left foot players and its easier to just focus on the left.We gather information for the systems, we analyse to see which player goes in which system. ”

Why did you sent someone to watch Derby training then?

“I dont need to watch a training session to know where they play. Why do I go?“Because its not forbidden, I didnt know it would create such a reaction and even though going and watching an opponent is not useful, it allows me to keep my anxiety low.”

Now a story about Pep Guardiola!

“Im going to tell you a story. When I was Bilbao coach, we played the final against Barcelona, who won 3-0. They were generous with us because after the third goal they stopped playing.“I was very sad to lose this game. When the game finished I sent it to (Pep) Guardiola, this analysis as a gift expressing my admiration for him.“He told me you know more about Barcelona than me.“But it was useless because they scored three goals against us. I do this to feel well, I see that this information does not allow you to win games.“Half of the goals we conceded are from set pieces. if the spying was effective, we would have found a solution on this subject. But it was not useful at all for us.6

Bielsa amazed Pep Guardiola with the extensive research and analysis he made in regards to Barcelona

“Here we have the analysis for all teams [points to rows of folders]. This is this season, this for last season.“This is for the friendlies. We went to watch the opponent.“What I want to tell you is that I want to be judged for my intentions. I dont need the information I gather. In my eyes, I feel I am innocent.“I dont feel Im trying to get a moral advantage. I feel I have done something not forbidden.“I don’t have bad intentions. Is this right? No, I dont say that. But we have to analyse the behaviours, taking into account the intentions of the person behaving this way.”

More from Bielsa’s coach…

“We will try to see in each picture all the free-kicks Derby made before. Each ball in set pieces, we show like this. Each one.Back to Bielsa:“Is this useful? No, because half of the goals we concede are from set pieces.We know if they made 184 corners, 33 were dangerous, we know quantitative data. We try to find weaknesses of the goalkeeper. Where we can press. The players know about the opponent.”

Now one of Bielsa’s coaches addresses the media…

“The other thing were going to see is what we do to analyse the strategic play of the opponent.”(one of his coaches speaks about video analysis)“We will try to see in each picture all the free-kicks Derby made before. Each ball in set pieces, we show like this. Each one.“We know if they made 184 corners, 33 were dangerous, we know quantitative data. We try to find weaknesses of the goalkeeper.“Where we can press. The players know about the opponent.”6

New Stoke boss Nathan Jones’ approach to the game has already been heavily analysed by Bielsa

Back to Bielsa…..

“To conclude, as were going to play Stoke, its hard because they have a new head coach who has played just three games.“So what did we do? We analyse the 26 games he played with Luton and we analysed the tactical structures we used. I would like to be held with the maximum humility.“I give this explanation to amke you understand why I think I am not cheating, by doing something that is not illegal.“I know I am not trying to get an advantage. I already have the information.“I repeat: Why do I do it? Because I think Im stupid.“I thank you for your patience.”*Mic drop – Bielsa walks out*

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