General Chat • A Debt Of Gratitude owed?

Marcelo Bielsa rightly being praised for the way he has us playing, how he has managed to change a teams entire playing style while using almost the exact same side as last season.

Thats not easy, in fact its extremely difficult. It took Pep Guardiola 2 seasons to get it right using Manchester Cities exceptional squad and limitless funds.

So is Bielsa just a superb coach?

The difference between these players under him and these players under his immediate predecessor is huge.

The passing, the confidence, the movement, the organisation.

These were things we rarely, if ever saw under Paul Heckingbottom.

Bielsa deserves lots of praise, for doing what he has so quickly.

But!!!!!

There is someone who actually may deserve some credit to . . . . . Thomas Christiansen.

As the Hecky era wore on the feeling that TC didnt do such a bad job after all grew, that coupled with him just being a nice guy meant that he was rememberd fondly by most LUFC fans.

At times under TC we played some lovely football, overshadowed by Don Marcelo now, but at the time it was some of the best stuff we had played in years.

We passed well, pressed well, played with energy and intensity, sound familiar?

Although TC wrongly changed our style after the Millwall game (as mentioned by Mateusz Klich), originally he was brought in to get us to play the Barcelona way.

Play out from the back, move quickly through the 3rds, press high, overload the opposition all over the pitch, win the ball back quickly.

The squad TC had had players signed for that style, you can see it in this seasons side.

Gianni Alioski- Runs and runs and runs, one touch passing
Samu Saiz- get the ball and charge forward quickly
Mateusz Klich- Polish Iniesta, bit of a joke but he does play that sort of way.

The squad under TC was built for the style Bielsa uses, TC trained them for it.

Ok it didn't workout in the end, but at times it did and it was lovely to watch.

"Ah but we never played with a back 3, full backs pushed on, dm dropping back".

We couldn't.

If we think back Ayling always did push on, but our left back was Berardi playing put of position, so he wasnt so keen and in the end we looked lob sided.

Vieira would often cover for Ayling, but that left us light in midfield.

Now imagine Berardi was a natural left back and did push on.
Full backs pushing on.
Holding midfielder drops between the cbs
Box to box midfielder gets forward to support the number 10 and front 3.

That was what TC hoped for, just maybe lacked the players.

So.

The reason we have changed our playing style and yet look so comfortable mY indeed be down to Marcelo Bielsa being an exceptional coach (very possible)

But.

I think it is also down to Thomas Christiansen.

The players weren't unfamiliar with what Bielsa wanted, because what Bielsa wanted is very similar to the style TC wanted, and the players signed for TC to implement that style have been amongst our best performers.
Klich, Alioski and Saiz.

Coincidence?

Or do we owe some gratitude to TC for laying some of the groundwork?

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