MY ACCOUNT
Marcelo Bielsa insisted he remains the right man at Leeds United after watching his side slump to a 4-0 home defeat to Tottenham on Saturday.
Harry Kane inspired the visitors to a comfortable victory at Elland Road as Leeds suffered a fourth consecutive Premier League defeat for the first time since a run of six in 2003-04.
Their latest loss came after a 6-0 thrashing by Liverpool on Wednesday and a 4-2 home defeat to Manchester United last Sunday. Indeed, Leeds have conceded 20 league goals in February, which is the most by a top-flight team in a calendar month since Newcastle United conceded 21 times in April 1986.
Leeds are in real danger of being dragged into the relegation zone if results do not improve, and there are reports that the club are seriously considering replacing Bielsa with former RB Leipzig boss Jesse Marsch.
However, when asked if he were confident he can keep Leeds up this season, Bielsa told BBC Sport: “I always have confidence in what I can do.”
Bielsa did accept his side were outplayed by Spurs and acknowledged the importance of sharpening up a defence that has conceded 60 times already this season. The only time in Premier League history they have let in more in a single 38-game campaign was when they were relegated in 2003-04.
“It was a fair defeat,” the Argentine said. “The difference should have been smaller, however – not so much due to how we played but because of the goals we could have scored.
“The feeling of dominance over the game was for Tottenham. We know clearly how [Antonio] Conte’s Tottenham play and obviously, what we tried to do, you can perceive it.
“The way they played was not surprising for us and we tried to overcome them but we couldn’t manage to take the ball off them in the build-up, nor could we neutralise the influence of their forwards. We couldn’t manage to put them at risk when they built up the play and they managed to find their forwards.
“We need to defend better. We need to make the opponents feel more worried when they have the ball and to try and manage to be able to attack without defending poorly and defend without it preventing us from attacking.
“We would get back and defend quickly after attacking and then attack quickly after defending but we have lost that virtue.
“Evidently there are factors that had a positive influence before but are not having the same impact.”
