Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa offers more of a threat than Norwich did. Bielsa, a man described as "El Loco" due to his eccentricity, is famed for his game approach. With his philosophy of a stifling high press, keeping possession, attention to detail, and he has a notable influence on Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino, Diego Simeone – among others. They consulted Bielsa before embarking on their managerial journey, with Pep calling him "the world's best coach."
Ever since Bielsa was appointed Leeds manager, there has been a total transformation, as shown by their PPDA stats. Well, not to leave you confused about what that means, PPDA is an acronym for Passes Per Defensive Action – it is a metric to know how quickly a team press.
PPDA means the number of passes a team allows the opposition before pressing and winning back the ball. The lower the PPDA, the more quickly the team presses. A team with a higher PPDA allows more passes to be played before pressing to win back the ball. (Well, I guess PPDA's meaning is sorted. You're welcome!).
According to the chart above, in the two seasons before Bielsa's appointment, Leeds had a PPDA of 9.86 in 2016/2017 and 8.69 in the 2017/2018 season under. But all this changed in "El Loco's" first season with a PPDA stat of 6.3 and 6.44 in 2019/2020 season. This features a change in approach, though not a drastic change in playing personnel. Leeds have simply become a team that immediately tries to win the ball back. In contrast to the EPL, Leicester was the highest pressing team with a PPDA of 7.95 while Liverpool came second with a PPDA of 8.01. Matches between Liverpool and Manchester City are always keenly contested, with City averaging a PPDA of 8.49 across the season (4th highest pressing team in the league). All good points, but none still comes close to Leeds'. According to Statsbomb, Leeds presses all over the pitch, right down to the opposition box. Liverpool, while good at playing out from the back, is not exempt from making errors when under pressure and passing lanes/options blocked, with one of the ways to beat Liverpool including pressing the goalkeeper (remember Iheanacho?). That wasn't the only instance; Alisson and Adrian were both guilty of making mistakes when pressed.
There are similarities between both teams. Liverpool has Roberto Firmino leading the line, while last season wasn't his best; he remains an essential cog in the team with him dropping back into midfield and practically the man leading the press. Leeds has Patrick Bamford, who also plays in the Firmino mould, leading the press and putting in a defensive shift, having 87% pressure events in the opposition box in 2018/2019 and ranking second for aggression in the 2019/2020 season. However, he's also not prolific, scoring 14 non-penalty goals last season from an XG of 22.5.
Leeds also are not afraid of getting stuck in and are adept at tackling with a tackle rate of 17.4 per game (3rd in the league) and averaging 59.8% possession. The presence of their fullbacks, who both had 14-goal involvements in the previous season, providing the other edge to their game though not on the same level as the due of Arnold and Robertson, who both had 31 goal involvements in the EPL last season.
Differences exist, and one of them is in the way they press to win the ball. Saturday's match between these two teams will surely be an interesting affair with Liverpool as favourites. Also, the absence of Ben White, the squads' relative inexperience for Football at the highest level might go against them not to forget the power of Anfield. But one thing Leeds has shown is they can mix it withthe league's best (the match against Arsenal in the FA cup is a testament to that, losing by a solitary goal).
Now that the Premier League is back let the games begin!
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