Saving Leeds United from the drop will be Sam Allardyce’s crowning escape act and he’s calling on the spirit of Marcelo Bielsa to pull it off. On the eve of the penultimate home match of this terrible season, with the club second from bottom and staring relegation in the face, Allardyce wants his players to summon the strength, energy, will and entertainment they produced under the iconic Argentine.
Fourteen months have passed since Andrea Radrizzani sacked Bielsa, who agreed terms on taking Uruguay’s head coach role this week, and the Whites have been unable to stem the flow of poor results in his absence. For the second consecutive season, Leeds are fighting for their top-flight lives.
The latter part of Allardyce’s career has been built upon his dependable ability to get crisis clubs out of trouble. Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland and Crystal Palace were all pulled away from the bottom three by Allardyce, but Leeds would top them all.
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With only four games at the helm, Allardyce knows time is against him, but with Newcastle United arriving tomorrow lunchtime, he’s looking back for ways to get more from the players. Luke Ayling, Patrick Bamford, Jack Harrison, Pascal Struijk, Rodrigo and Robin Koch are all Bielsa veterans likely to figure tomorrow.
Allardyce wants to see them recover that ability to outrun the division as they once did. Just as they did on the December 2020 night they spanked his West Bromwich Albion team 5-0.
“In four games, if I keep Leeds up it’s going to be the best one because [of] having more games at all the others,” he said. “Trying to see the Leeds of old, with the energy and abilities they’ve got, coupled with a bit more defensive resilience, under Bielsa, is probably what I’m looking for on Saturday.
“I don't know where that’s gone, certainly not quite as buoyant and as entertaining as it was before. Mind you, in saying that, his second year [in the Premier League] was a bit of a disaster, wasn’t it?
“The first year, I was at West Brom, in the pandemic, which was a disaster, but he came down to The Hawthorns about the second or third game and just blew us away. I know what some of the players here are capable of.
“I know all of the players are not here anymore, but a bit more of that, 100 per cent effort and 100 per cent being able to outrun the opposition, which was one of Leeds’ biggest strengths then.”
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