Valverde leads Uruguay rebellion against Bielsa as wild accusations fly in heated 48-minute meeting | OneFootball

Federico Valverde is leading a group of Uruguay players ‘rebelling’ against Marcelo Bielsa as the manager accused them of trying to get him sacked in a heated 48-minute team meeting.

Uruguay endured frustrating draws with Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde, meaning they need to beat European champions Spain in their final Group H game to qualify for the World Cup knockout stages.

There have been whispers of discontent in the Uruguay camp over Bielsa’s methods and GE Globo have now shed light on the players’ bid to persuade Bielsa to change his methods and tactics for the crucial last game of the group phase.

Real Madrid star Valverde, Internacional goalkeeper Sergio Rochet, Manchester United’s Manuel Ugarte and Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur have ‘rebelled against’ Bielsa, ‘asking him to change the way he works and acts in the decisive game’.

They ‘summoned’ Bielsa for a meeting, in which they revealed that ‘everyone is unhappy with the training load’ that’s led to injuries in preparation for games.

The players in the meeting ‘asked for changes in training’ and to ‘play in a low block’ against Spain, ‘exploiting the counter-attacks’.

Bielsa then called a ‘general meeting’ for all of the players, in which – ‘for 48 minutes’ – he explained the ‘visions of his work’ and that ‘the players tried to take him out’ – i.e. get him sacked – after he refused to call Luis Suarez up for the tournament and also failing to include Nahitan Nandez.

After the former Leeds boss claimed he ‘forged the careers of some players’ in the squad, including Maxi Araújo and Sebastian Caceres, some of the players ‘reacted and left the meeting immediately’ despite Jose Gimenez’s attempts to ‘contain the situation’.

Out ‘in less than a month’

It’s claimed that an individual high up in the Uruguay Football Association is aware of the situation and has confirmed that Bielsa will be out of the job “in less than a month”.

After their 2-2 draw with Cape Verde, Bielsa hit out at his “highly disorganised” side.

“The team was highly disorganised,” Bielsa said. “We would attack while running the risk of them scoring against us at the end of the match. We could have won the match and we also could have lost the match. Undoubtedly, Uruguay is a better squad than Cape Verde. But this has to be shown.”