Leeds United were beaten comfortably at home to Tottenham Hotspur in what was their latest heavy defeat this season.
The Whites are teetering on the brink of a relegation battle, having won none of their last six matches, whilst conceding 20 goals in the month of February - a Premier League record.
Marcelo Bielsa faced up to the media following his side's defeat, answering questions on relegation, Elland Road's boos and his future amid growing uncertainty as Leeds slip further down the Premier League table.
Here is every word the manager had to say following Leeds United 0-4 Tottenham Hotspur.
Another horrible scoreline, I know you had your chances - how are you affected by the manner of that defeat today?
Obviously it's not just this game but a succession of results. And against these type of results there's no way of not feeling badly.
You've done so much for these players and take on enormous responsibility - is it not time they played more responsibly?
I don't see it the way you're suggesting. I also haven't done for them what you say. Either way I propose the style of play they take forward and that allowed for a positive cycle. In this moment, it's very difficult for us to impose our way of playing and I need to know how to understand that the same style of play developed and was effective and that means that the coach interpreted the reality well. So when the opposite happens I have to admit what I'm proposing is not working.
We know you're going to stick to your philosophy and style but is it your responsibility when easy goals are conceded?
I sincerely don't see it that way. Our way of playing has two great needs: that there's a press in the opponent's half that prevents the ball getting to their forwards cleanly, and so when the opponent's forwards receive the ball that they find themselves uncomfortable because the pass that found them was made difficult. And in the last three games that hasn't happened, we didn't manage to press well their build-up, we made enormous efforts but it didn't work. Passes that came from back to front they could always pick them. And in that case it's not easy for the line that has to recover the ball to be efficient in the recovery of the ball. To be just with the response, when you press and defend going forwards, the press needs to be good so the defence has options to anticipate and to recover the ball and that's not happening. Players are making enormous efforts to obstruct build-up. Despite that the opponents are managing to circulate the ball well. And after with that ease to find their forwards it becomes difficult for us to sustain. This explanation makes the players exempt.
In your opinion Marcelo, are the players still with you?
If I measure the effort I have to say yes but if I look at what we get and what we don't get I can't deny that we're not getting what we used to get. When players give their all physically with so much effort. Clearly I have to think about what I'm proposing, it's not that they don't want to do it, they're just not managing to do it. And sincerely I say it with total honesty, it's not the lack of decision, decisiveness or implication, when the process doesn't give the expected results it's natural that the one who's taking it forward starts to lose confidence, so it's a consequence that's expected. Due to it not being as effective as it used to be, it becomes more difficult to. The positive things are contagious but also the negative things. When something comes out well there's a lot more confidence and desire to do it and when something's not going well there's less confidence and it's less easy to do it.
Let in 60 goals this season, is the harsh truth you have to improve defensively in the last games of the season or you'll be relegated?
The amount of goals we've conceded, of course it has a decisive influence on the results we obtain. No team can think in progressing within the competition if you have a defensive weakness that's so manifested like ours. But I insist I think this lost efficiency is the way we try to play. It's not a problem only in how we defend but the total functioning of the team. Without defending good or bad depends on the last line of the team. We also don't attack well or good depending on how the offensive line is. We're a team where one thing conditions the other and that link has stopped being efficient. We had a distinctive route, the speed in the transitions, that's to say we attacked without that preventing us from defending when we lost the ball. We could defend without that preventing us from [attacking]. It's not a thing linked to the lack of desire but that is costing us so it's been difficult to recover the ball from the opponent and it's been difficult for us to maintain the possession so we're with the ball but without the capacity to damage the opponent and when we lose the ball in some way we're facilitating the attack of the opponent.
How frustrated are you becoming? Losing games, near the bottom of the table, lost key players to injury, how frustrated?
The problem is not due to the absence of the players. With the totality of all the players things would have been less difficult. But it's clear that we shouldn't attribute the run of results due to the absence of the players. There's something that's evident, in the game against Man Utd we managed to defend very well as a defensive mid, Klich as the intermediate and Rodrigo as the attacking mid. The same midfield didn't manage to have a good recovery against Liverpool. And today when we played with seven players with a defensive profile in the first half. Ayling, Llorente, Junior, Pascal, Koch, Dallas and Forshaw, a back four and three midfielders with a more defensive profile, we didn't defend better. So, I decided a more defensive profile and we concede more goals. When I offensive profile we concede goals and when I go with a defensive profile we still concede goals. The reality to the play is the results.
Marcelo after the defeat at Forest in the promotion season, you sensed a lack of faith around the team but you believed and came through - does this period feel similar and can you draw strength from that period?
I don't think that they're comparable moments, a competition where we were within the best teams, within the six/seven best teams, but we're in a competition where that reality changes. Of course this situation is serious and no team that accumulates successive defeats maintains the confidence in what they're doing or the confidence in the coach. What am I trying to say to you - that if I evaluate the effort of what they've given I feel completely backed up by what the team is trying to do because they're giving their all, their effort, their dedication but clearly I can't ignore that those who make an effort and get nothing in return, yes or yes they start to doubt what they're doing? It's not a question between the team and I. It's the question of the reality we're constructing and the one we need to generate. We need to impose what we're attempting and we're not managing to do it.
There's also a thing that's not a justification in no way. The games against Aston Villa, West Ham and Newcastle, I position the game against Newcastle a very good game on our part. They don't reflect the same situation as this one. And this situation is earmarked by the fact we've played three of the best six teams in the PL. Understand me well: in no way am I justifying the results because the results continue to show the team is not stable. It's not the same a succession of difficult opponents and losing those games than against a different type of opponent but whilst making this explanation, of course what I'm saying doesn't have consistency or has a relative consistency because in those three games we've conceded 14 goals. It's fine about the power of the opponent but these opponents they don't win by this margin very often so what I'm trying to say is that I'm not confused in what I'm trying to say.
Marcelo do you still have confidence you have the ideas and ability to turn Leeds around this season.
Of course.
