In a season which has never seen Leeds United really escape the clutches of the foot of the Premier League table, the question of Marcelo Bielsa’s future has never gone away.
In truth, Bielsa’s future has always been on the agenda because of the 12-month contracts he has been signing since arriving in West Yorkshire.
You go into a season barely three months after he has signed his deal and the questions are already mounting for what Leeds can plan to do the following summer if they or Bielsa don’t sign again.
There has never really been any doubt about wanting Bielsa to carry on, though, at least on the part of the club and its fans.
The first year was the breath of fresh air everyone needed and a play-off loss only deepened the desire for the Argentine to see to his unfinished business with the Championship.
The second year delivered the league title and the third a ninth-place finish in the top flight which surpassed all expectations.
2021/22 is the first campaign which has produced sustained dips in results and anxiety about where the season may ultimately be heading.
Even for those in the pro-Bielsa camp, there is concern, not about the club’s intentions, but the 66-year-old’s own desire to stay on.
Bielsa’s own plans cannot be taken for granted and if this season is hurting the fans, it will be hurting him just as much with every defeat and goal conceded.
Last night’s hammering at Liverpool smarted and even with the caveat of their world-class squad, it signalled perhaps the lowest ebb of Bielsa’s tenure.
There were the, now usual, pre-match questions about his line-up and players being played out of position when less shifting around would do.
Then came the worryingly quick drain of confidence from the side at the moment Michael Oliver pointed to the penalty spot in the 15th minute.
United’s man-to-man system was cruelly exposed by the title challengers, who were better in every department of the field, almost toying with Leeds for long periods of the second half before that rush of late goals.
Perennial problems like marauding opposition centre-backs and absent marking at corners came to the fore once more in an evening which piled the pressure on United’s league position.
Burnley’s improbable win over Tottenham Hotspur did not ease any anxieties either.
It’s more than just Liverpool. That was a match Leeds were firmly expected to lose. It’s the wider context and the 16 goals conceded in four matches or the 56 conceded all season.
United hoped to be well away from trouble by now after everyone expected a very challenging start to the season would give way to the kind of form we saw last term.
That sustained turn in form has never come, much in the way it feels like this campaign has never got going for Leeds.
Rather than climb away, the club are now looking over their shoulder at Everton, Newcastle United and Burnley, who all have games in hand on the Whites.
Fixtures with the bottom two, Brentford, Aston Villa and Leicester City are all to come between now and the end of the campaign.
The opportunities are there for Leeds to get themselves out of dodge, but Andrea Radrizzani, Paraag Marathe and the board will know this season is not going the way anyone wanted.
The idea of taking another direction without Bielsa now, at this precarious point in the season, feels drastic and too risky.
With Bielsa there is at least some sense of a known quantity. Yes, the defeats have been heavy and too frequent, but there is enough evidence to prove he and the team can get it right in spectacular fashion.
Another face would bring a vastly unknown quantity in a very short space of time with no ability to transfer players in or out. They would go with what they have and no coach knows this group better than Bielsa.
Every facet of that senior unit is coached in his image and tuned into the minutiae of a system which can, if not recently, get results at the highest level.
Leeds are all in with Bielsa. Last summer and this January’s transfer windows were dictated by the head coach. They have to see those decisions through to the end.
The club’s Premier League status is at risk, yes, but it is hard to imagine any coach can get more out of these players than Bielsa.
The majority have been with him for three or four years and seen their careers taken to levels they never expected by his coaching regime.
As low as everyone felt at full-time on Wednesday, there has to remain a deep-seated faith among the players in what Bielsa can still do with them this season.
Every decision to be made this summer depends on what league Leeds find themselves in, but even if they remain in the top flight you suspect there will need to be a serious rethink on the plan they brought into 21/22 as they go into 22/23.
