The presentation carried out yesterday by Marcelo Bielsa caused an impact, although not as much as ten years ago when he jumped into the electoral arena as coach of one of Athletic’s presidential hopefuls. So he went hand in hand with Josu Urrutia. Now from Iñaki Arechabaleta.
The coach from Rosario gave details of all kinds throughout an intervention, this time recorded on video, which lasted for an hour and will be posted on the website of his current candidacy. Bielsa divided his long professional stage as a coach into three stages. After Athletic, the second of them, he was aware that he had to “start thinking that there were some things that he had to polish, perfect, to improve the method of preparing the players.”
The Argentine coach, in any case, continues to handle all kinds of detailed data on both his team individually and collectively, as well as the rest of the competitors. Data that allows you to know, for example, that Leeds was the team in the world that ran the most in the 2020-21 season and Athletic that of the Spanish League. “Physical preparation and load control make setting goals less difficult,” he says.
470 games, in detail
As far as Athletic is concerned, Bielsa has already analyzed a total of 90 games corresponding to last season: 45 for the first team, 38 for Bilbao Athletic, 4 for Basconia and 3 for Juvenil A. “90 games analyzed in detail plus the 380 Spanish League matches that gives us a global idea of both what is in Lezama and the Spanish competition itself”, he argues.
Looking ahead to the composition of Athletic’s first team if he becomes the new coach from June 24, Bielsa is aware that he has 40 players at his services from the outset, not including possible additions. His initial idea, if he repeats as Atletico coach, would be to have a squad of 22 permanent players (two per position) plus a third goalkeeper and two other men with projection, not contrasted. “If we win, we will have to make decisions soon about a total of 40 players, which requires having seen all the games beforehand to try not to make mistakes.”
Inaki Ugalde
