The ultimate Marcelo Bielsa XI features three Leeds Utd icons & Real Madrid star | OneFootball

Marcelo Bielsa has built a reputation as one of the most influential and uncompromising tacticians in football history.

The Argentinian coach left such an impact at the likes of Newell’s Old Boys, Chile, Athletic Bilbao and Leeds United that supporters of his old clubs are dubbed the ‘widows of Bielsa’. But what about his best players?

With Bielsa returning to England as Uruguay take on Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions at Wembley, put together the ultimate ‘El Loco’ XI from across his unparalleled career. Arranged, of course, in his classic 4-1-4-1 formation.

GK: Claudio Bravo

You look through Bielsa’s career and he was rarely blessed a truly top goalkeeper – from Pablo Cavallero at Argentina to the motley crew he worked with at Leeds.

Bravo is probably the pick of the bunch. He didn’t achieve his best feats until after Bielsa left Chile, playing a starring role in two Copa America penalty shootout victories over Argentina, but it was ‘El Loco’ who laid the foundations for that generation’s success.

‘With Don Marcelo Bielsa “Impossible is Nothing”’ tweeted Bravo when Leeds achieved promotion in 2020.

Too right.

RB: Andoni Iraola

Special mention to the eternal Javier Zanetti, an ever-present and Bielsa’s most-used player across his six years in charge of Argentina.

But getting the starting spot at right-back has to be Iraola, Athletic Club’s long-serving club captain during Bielsa’s time in the Basque Country.

He was an underappreciated player, earning seven caps for Spain in their golden era, and now he’s continuing his old boss’s legacy in the dugout.

Strong competition as the best Bielsista working today alongside…

CB: Mauricio Pochettino

No Bielsa XI would be complete without a nod to Pochettino, one of his most trusted lieutenants at Newell’s Old Boys and Argentina.

And the start of their relationship is wonderfully, weirdly Bielsa all over.

“One night, at one in the morning, he came to my house, knocked on the door and wanted to see a 13-year-old boy,” Pochettino told ESPN Brasil.

“He tried to convince my parents to let me travel 200km, to Rosario, which was the distance from my city, Murphy. He wanted to see my legs!

“At this time of the morning, he would have to be a little… he had to make my parents dream. Then he said: ‘These legs look like those of a very good player’. That was a good lie, no bad intentions.”

As we said, a true one-off.

CB: Fernando Gamboa

We were spoilt for choice when it came to a defender to marshal the backline alongside Poch, particularly from Bielsa’s latter days in Europe and international football.

But it just wouldn’t have been right to have just one representative from his beloved Newell’s Old Boys. As a young coach, Bielsa led the Lepars to two Argentinian titles and a Copa Libertadores final heartbreakingly lost on penalties.

The centre-back isn’t especially well-known outside of his home country, but he was an influential figure in that memorable Bielsa team, later returned to coach the club, and featured alongside the likes of Diego Simeone and Gabriel Batistuta in Argentina’s 1991 Copa America triumph.

LB: Jean Beausejour

Not the sexiest name in world football, but we needed another face from Chile’s Golden Generation.

The former Wigan and Birmingham City left-back scored their winning goal against Honduras in South Africa in 2010, the nation’s first World Cup win in almost half a century.

That tournament ended in heartbreak, but it was only just the beginning of a beautiful journey.

Shoutout to Stuart Dallas, who could’ve done a job here or anyone else on this teamsheet if required.

DM: Kalvin Phillips

Taking a wider look at Phillips’ career as a whole, he isn’t anywhere near the best defensive midfielder to play under Bielsa. Javier Mascherano, Olympic Gold medallist in 2004, might like a word.

But we can’t not include Phillips, given that he’s the ultimate testament of Bielsa’s transformative coaching abilities.

Going from a fairly underwhelming meat-and-spuds Championship jack of all trades to a key player for England, named their Player of the Year after reaching the Euro 2020 final, was a rise every bit as remarkable as the subsequent fall.

Don’t take our word for it, either.

“I cannot mention Leeds without mentioning one special person – Marcelo,” Phillips said after joining Manchester City.

“The best manager I have ever come across. Not only did you give the club everything, but you also gave me everything I needed to become the person I am today on and off the field.”

FWR: Markel Susaeta

Not including Pablo Hernandez feels like sacrilege, given his talismanic role in Bielsa’s promotion-winning Leeds team, but we needed some variety. He dropped the veteran ‘El Mago’ once they were back in the Premier League, and we’re following his lead in making tough choices.

An underrated gem from the prime Revista De La Liga era, we’ve decided to complete the full right flank from Bielsa’s unforgettable Athletic team. Poor Patrice Evra could not cope with the relentless energy of Iraola and Susaeta when they were at their very best.

Susaeta registered a satisfying tally of 24 goals and 24 assists in 109 appearances under Bielsa. Only Bamford notched more goal contributions in total.

CM: Federico Valverde

It’s a shame that reports out of Uruguay suggest that Bielsa and Valverde apparently don’t see eye to eye.

Valverde’s absolutely everywhere all-action display in Real Madrid’s stunning victory over Manchester City demonstrated he’s the picture-perfect ideal of a Bielsa midfielder. An engine that would make Jeremy Clarkson swoon.

Rarely in Bielsa’s career has Bielsa been blessed to work with footballers at such an elite level. We’d love to see them work it out and turn things around at the World Cup. Watch this space.

CM: Mateusz Klich

Special mention to Dimitri Payet. You might think of the languid, mercurial playmaker as the opposite of a Bielsa player, but he produced arguably the best football of his career at Marseille, with 21 assists in just 38 appearances under the Argentinian.

But we cannot look beyond Klich, whose journey at Leeds embodied the unforgettable Bielsa era.

“This Leeds pressing isn’t even funny anymore. If Mateusz Klich forces poor Joe Allen any further back he’ll be in 2016 and playing for Liverpool again,” – the greatest line ever published in a BBC live blog got to the heart of what made Bielsa’s Leeds so captivating.

FWL: Raphinha

Not only did Raphinha take Bielsa’s Leeds to another level, but the arrangement went both ways.

“He is a manager who helped me a lot from the first moment I arrived at Leeds,” the Brazilian said.

“He always demands more, he always demands the maximum performance. He helped me to get to the national team and he helped me to arrive at Barcelona.

“If it wasn’t for his teachings, in a group or individually, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

ST: Carlos Tevez

Hernan Crespo, Fernando Llorente and Andre-Pierre Gignac scored bagfuls of goals, and yet we can’t look past a player who only linked up briefly with Bielsa one glorious summer. Bear with us.

A 20-year-old Tevez scored eight goals in six appearances for Argentina at the 2004 Olympics. He was the top scorer at the tournament, notching a hat-trick against Costa Rica in the quarters, one goal (and two assists) against Andrea Pirlo’s Italy in the semis and the match-winner against Paraguay in the final.

An absolute force of nature, Tevez could have been Bielsa’s greatest-ever player. A fearless kid from a tough barrio in Buenos Aires who fought against the odds to reach the highest level. Watching him as a youngster was like watching a player grown in a lab specifically to please ‘El Loco’.

They looked destined to conquer the world together, only for Bielsa to step down as Argentina manager a couple of months later.

What might’ve been, eh? A question that Tevez evidently asks himself.

“I know Ferguson didn’t have the best relationship with me but together with Bielsa, those two are the best managers I had,” Tevez later reminisced.