ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) – The risk of Marcelo Bielsa visceral.
“If I have to cut off my finger to win tomorrow’s derby, I will,” he told his players, “I have four. “
Bielsa did this in 1990, in her first year as a technician, to spark her players’ attention at Newell’s Old Boys before going to archiver Rosario Central.
His team won the Argentine league 4-3, although Bielsa had to lose a finger. But it is one of the first examples of the motivational strategies of a coach he already knew as “El Loco” for his obsessive and explosive personality.
Today, 30 years after starting his training career at the Rosarino club, Bielsa is about to fit in to the last, and colorful, most sensible coach to face the Premier League.
Bielsa has brought Leeds back to the English Premier League after a 16-year absence, and on Sunday will face Liverpool led by Jurgen Klopp at Anfield in the first match of the season against the protective champions.
For Bielsa, 65, he was the last reflector of a one that started in Rosario and also took him to clubs in Mexico, Spain, France and Italy, along with the national groups of Argentina and Chile.
And perhaps an unforeseen career for someone coming from a circle of family members of prominent lawyers. Bielsa’s grandfather, Rafael, was an eminent local instructor and that of several law books. But a young Marcellus broke with the circle of family culture and decided on football. join Newell’s Old Boys Academy instead, the same position Lionel Messi would make his debut later.
But a modest career in the game as a central defender lasted only five years, after which he began running as a youth coach and skill scout at Newell Academy.
Bielsa traveled thousands of kilometers to Argentine towns in search of young talent, and temporarily became transparent that he was intelligent in detecting them, brought back players like Gabriel Batistuta and also learned of Mauricio Pochettino, who still had his own intelligent fortune. as coach, which led Tottenham to the Champions League final last year.
Pochettino lived in Murphy, a city about 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Rosario, and he intended to sign for another team, but according to Pochettino, Bielsa showed up at his space one afternoon at one in the morning and convinced to his father to leave him signalal for Newell.
Years later, Pochettino, one of the key players, as Newell won the name of the Argentine league in Bielsa’s first year as head coach.
The celebrations of this name featured a loud, shirt-waving Bielsa, who since then has rarely shown this kind of raw emotion in public.
“It’s because of the tension he had at the time,” said Juan José Bottoli, a doctor who ran with Bielsa at the time, “the kind of person who felt in his blood all the pictures he had made. “
Bielsa regained the name the following year after a penalty shoot-out against Boca Juniors at La Bombonera stadium, but lost the Copa Libertadores in 1992 to Sao Paulo, also on penalties.
This time also gave rise to one of the greatest mythical stories about Bielsa.
After a 6-0 loss to San Lorenzo in a Copa Libertadores match, a staunch enthusiastic organization came to his door and then Ransa out with a hand grenade and threatened to unplug her if the enthusiasts didn’t leave.
These days, it’s your training strategies that we communicate the most.
Since its inception, Bielsa has been obsessed with team preparation, a detail that, according to his friends, is inherited from his circle of family of lawyers, which has meant thousands of hours of examination of all facets of the game, while Bielsa tries to minimize the unpredictability of football.
“He has treated us with wonderful demands. In a way it bothered younger boys like us,” said Ricardo Lunari, who played for Bielsa in Newell. “But over time, you realize that everything he does is meant to make you the first player in the department.
One of his wonderful inspirations was the winner of the 1995 Champions League, Ajax, trained through Louis van Gaal. This attacking team used a 3-4-3 formation with two ends to the front and a target man, an uncompromising formula used through Bielsa.
Pochettino is far from the only one of Bielsa’s former players to coaches. Others come with Gerardo Martino of Mexico, Eduardo Berizzo of Paraguay, Gabriel Heinze of Argentina and others. Many have learned from the folders Bielsa gave them as players with long-running tactics. execute opponents.
“They got used to making plan games, and then they adapted their own knowledge,” Bottoli said.
Bielsa left Newell’s in 1993 to sign for the Mexican Atlas, but his legacy in Rosario is still alive.
“His sense of belonging and intense work as a coach make him an idol for all of us,” said Newell Vice President Cristian D’Amico.
The club’s stadium is named after the coach and Bielsa has returned the honor with $2. 5 million that was used to build a hotel for players to prepare for matches.
The return of “El Loco” in Rosario is still expected. This sentiment has replaced even after their career low in 2002, when Argentine team Bielsa reached the World Cup as a favorite and left with a disappointing outing at the organizational level.
“When he stops training,” Lunari, the former player, said, “his position on the global will be Rosario and will be close to Newell’s. “