Is There A Love Affair Between Klopp & Bielsa?

The biggest news in football this weekend is that Leeds United are finally back in the Premier League after 16 long years of anguishing in the lower leagues. The debate immediately started about whether it’s good or not from a Liverpool perspective that Leeds are back, but we can all agree that having Marcelo Bielsa in the Premier League is entertaining.

There appears to be a bit of a bromance brewing between Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Bielsa. Back in June when football in England restarted, Bielsa had this to say of Klopp & Liverpool.

“In this season, Liverpool and Klopp have been the reference for everybody in football,” he said. “Always you have teams and managers that attract you and you want to copy them. Human beings always want to copy those who win. In this case, I have seen a lot of positive things.

“We have examples like Liverpool and we have opposite examples as well. We have seen teams score a lot immediately and others, which have needed a game to get going.”

Last December, when Liverpool were in the middle of their unprecedented winless streak in the Premier League, the Leeds boss heaped praise on the Reds

“The best team is always the best team because they always understand they can improve,” said Bielsa. “When one team stops developing, the consequence is they get worse. If you watch Liverpool over a long period, they’re not better or worse, they always play well.”

And finally, this is what Klopp had to say about Bielsa in January.

“Bielsa is an outstanding coach, an outstanding role model,” said the Reds boss. “When I came in, I hadn’t seen 51 games of Derby to be honest and he’s obviously really good and prepared. I respect him a lot, but that’s still not like it should be. I think we all agree on that.”