Jamie Shackleton believes Leeds United's professional response to Marcelo Bielsa's dismissal was a key factor behind their Premier League survival last season. Bielsa was sacked in February after a run of four straight defeats which saw Leeds leak 17 goals in the process.
Bielsa left Elland Road with Leeds swimming in a precarious 16th place, as the board drew the curtain on his memorable three-and-a-half year stay in South Yorkshire. It was the Argentine that presented Shackleton with his debut at the age of 18 in 2018 and the 22-year-old made 78 appearances during his reign at Elland Road.
Shackleton has credited Bielsa for instilling an identity into the team and has lauded his former boss for "improving" him as a player.
"I enjoyed my time under Bielsa," Shackleton says. "We worked really hard for the three-and-a-half years he was at the club. It was great to see that everything we worked so hard for being played out on the pitch.
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"It was clear what style and what type of football we played. Ultimately I improved as a player a lot in his time at the club."
The Leeds faithful have always felt a great devotion to Bielsa after he secured their return via the Championship title in 2020. Their 9th place finish under his guidance further added to his legend at Elland Road and his departure marked the end of an era.
Jesse Marsch was quickly installed as his successor but the squad was receptive to the new regime as they collected 15 points from their final 12 games to survive the drop.
Although Shackleton featured just once during the final stretch of the campaign under Marsch, the midfielder, who is on loan at Millwall, has praised his teammates for immediately taking on board Marsch's ideas.
"It was a big change to what we had been used to," Shackleton admits. "But there wasn't really time to dwell or think of anything other than getting on board with what Jesse and his staff wanted to do and what they wanted to bring to the club.
"All the lads bought into that brilliantly and we just about got the points that we needed to do what mattered most and to keep the club in the Premier League."
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