Former Premier League midfielder Darren Ambrose believes the majority of the blame for Leeds United’s poor season has to be laid at Marcelo Bielsa’s door. The Argentine left Elland Road at the end of February with the Whites in freefall in the Premier League table.
Jesse Marsch was initially able to stop the rot but saw his side drop into the bottom three following the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal on Sunday. Leeds desperately need results in their last three games to escape the perilous situation they have found themselves in.
After gaining plenty of plaudits last season, the high-intensity, high-risk style preferred by Bielsa came under heavy criticism this term and was the main contributor to the club’s shocking goal difference (currently minus 35). Ambrose believes that unsustainable defensive method is the primary factor behind Leeds being in relegation trouble.
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“It’s obviously not solely [because of] Bielsa, the players are to blame as well,” he claimed on talkSPORT.
“But a lot of supporters of Leeds phone up and say ‘we love watching Leeds play’ but you don’t now! You’re in the bottom three and you’re in serious danger of going down.
“Are you still going to phone up saying ‘we’re happy, we don’t mind’? To concede 74 goals is not good enough, that’s the main reason, let’s be honest. They’ve scored two more than Everton, seven more than Burnley, seven more than Watford and 17 more than Norwich so, in terms of goals, they’re absolutely fine.
“Goals enough should’ve kept them in the division but to concede 74, Burnley above them [have conceded] 49. Yeah, Bielsaball in the first season, we all used to say ‘we love watching Leeds’ because you know you’d get goals in the game, that’s all, it was an exciting game either way. I think they’re in serious, serious trouble.”
While a sizable proportion of Leeds fans still don’t support the decision that was made by the club’s hierarchy to relieve Bielsa of his duties, the Whites were leaking goals and showed no sign of shoring up the defence. In defence of the former manager, he was missing a core of his best defensive players as Liam Cooper and Kalvin Phillips had been injured for almost three months.
By the same stretch, Marsch has been able to limit the amount of goals his side are conceding even before those two senior players returned to full fitness. Leeds fans will be sweating over the availability of Cooper for the final three games of the season as they looked far more of a cohesive defensive unit with him in the backline.
He would hopefully be able to help his team mates arrest a run of three matches without a win, a run which Ambrose believes has made it a straight relegation battle between Leeds and Burnley. The ex-Charlton and Crystal Palace midfielder added: “Two or three weeks ago, I had it as a shootout between Burnley and Everton to go down.
“I knew who Leeds were playing, I knew Leeds weren’t in good form but I couldn’t see Everton picking up the results they did - beating chelsea then Leicester - I honestly couldn’t see it happening.
“The way they were playing; they looked low on confidence, they looked moody on the pitch but they’ve massively turned it around and I think Everton will be safe.”
