Marcelo "Loco" Bielsa's Bilbao spell a classic case study of the method behind the madness

Marcelo Bielsa

It’s odd that Marcelo Bielsa’s name doesn’t come up all too often in discussions revolving around the current managerial elites in world football. Mourinho, Wenger, Ancelotti – you hear these names on a regular basis. But not Bielsa. He is always conspicuous by his absence, stowed away from the world. For one thing, not many chairmen would like to entertain the idea of working with Loco Bielsa. He is not your every day, media-friendly, by-the-book manager. Bielsa prefers to stay away from the media glare, as evidenced by the fact that he refuses to do exclusive interviews. His obsession with football borders on the fanatical and he has a history of alienating players with his excessive demands and unconventional management methods. Add in a hard, cold demeanour, awkward posturing and pacing during football matches, and everything about Bielsa screams “trouble”.

Those who are brave enough to hire Marcelo Bielsa as manager are rewarded with an eventful, controversy-riddled reign, with breathtaking and cutting edge football interspersed within. Bielsa may be many things, but he is certainly not boring, and neither are his teams. His most recent ventures, Athletic Bilbao and before that the Chilean National Team, have entertained the crowds and elevated Bielsa to cult status within the fans’ community. The highs have their corresponding lows, but there is never a dull moment with Bielsa.

Athletic Bilbao’s is a classic case. Having signed for the Spanish club before the 2011-12 season, Bielsa’s subsequent two year reign at the club was marked by giant-killing Europa League and Copa del Rey runs (Bilbao lost in the finals of both tournaments in 2012), a fallout with arguably the club’s two biggest stars – Javi Martinez and Fernando Llorente (both were forced to train separately because they demanded transfers), a physical altercation with the site foreman hired to improve the training ground facilities and a fight to avoid the drop in the 2012/13 season which saw the club eventually finish 12th, 9 points clear of the relegation zone. A rollercoaster ride if there ever was one.

The eccentric Argentine parted ways with the Basque club recently, and the divorce was seen coming from a mile away. Bielsa’s dictatorial methods had many a player suffer from premature burnout, and his tactic of fielding players in unfamiliar positions – although hailed as a stroke of genius in the first season – had led to a disjointed team that leaked goals at an alarming rate in the 2012/13 campaign. Gone was the dazzling, cavalier, high tempo football that saw them win countless admirers in their stunning 2011/12 Europa League campaign where they accounted for the scalp of Manchester United. In its place was a team that was rudderless and seemed to suffer from a heavy workload, a knock-on effect of the gruelling training regimes set in place by Bielsa. Midfielders and strikers were often made to train separately, with each group seeing the other only on match days, having not trained together throughout the week. Dissenters were put in their place or made to train in isolation; there was no questioning the general’s orders. The tactics and formations were harming the club and the players, dragging them down into the murky waters of relegation. The genius had turned into an imbecile, and a separation was imminent.

But Bielsa’s time at Bilbao can’t be termed as a failure. The San Mames stadium was witness to state-of-the-art modern day football at times, and their intense pressing and attacking mindset had even Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola intrigued: “They all run up … and they all run down again. Up, down, up, down, up, down. They’re fascinating.”

Bielsa brought with himself a deluge of technical and tactical renovations, with an emphasis on synchronised movement across all players so as to move the ball up the field quickly and efficiently, but on the ground. All this for a team that relied on long balls from back to front as their main weapon during football matches.

The changes were revolutionary, and some players were often caught between forgetting their antiquated methods and embracing the contemporary demands. The results were that by the end of the 2011/12 season, several first team players had impressed enough to warrant interest from big European clubs. Martinez forced a move to Bayern Munich, Iker Munain was linked to Manchester United and Fernando Llorente was a target for at least 3 major clubs. Bilbao’s profile was certainly on the rise, and Bielsa deserves credit for turning this mid-table, glamour-less side into one that played urgent, non-stop, high stakes football that was just as appealing and compelling as Barcelona’s famed tiki-taka.

The Bilbao adventure may have ended for the 57-year-old, but there are more clubs out there for Bielsa. Sure, his press conferences last for 4-5 hours as he insists on answering every question, from those assembled, to the best of his abilities. Yes, Bielsa courts controversy, deliberately or inadvertently, and his obsessive, compulsive pacing of the touchlines in careful, measured steps is unnerving. An intense person, Bielsa is the poisoned chalice of football managers. But there is method to his madness, and the lure of beautiful football that Bielsa promises may be too strong to resist for club owners. The time is right for Bielsa to move to a top club; perhaps the Bundesliga could attract him as it will give him a chance to go up against his old friend, Guardiola, who graciously refers to Bielsa as “the best manager in the world”. Bielsa’s genius deserves to a grander stage, for it’s managers like him that will take football to the next level.