Marcelo Bielsa’s gung-ho Leeds will be box office this season after pushing Liverpool in thriller

MARCELO BIELSA looked at his watch immediately after Mo Salah grabbed Liverpool’s third goal – and every Leeds fan will have done the same.

Just 32 minutes into their Premier League return and we had already seen five goals.

EPA

Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds came close to grabbing a point at the home of the Premier League champions [/caption]

It had been 16 years and four months since Leeds’ previous top-flight match and during that time without them in the Premier League, there will not have been too many opening spells of a game like this.

But already, we know Leeds – and of course Bielsa – will be box office this season. And there will not be many goalless draws involving this team from Yorkshire.

While they may lack defensive quality at this level, last year’s Championship winners combine bucketloads of energy and bravery when charging forward and they will be great fun to watch.

 

Speaking of buckets, Bielsa, of course, starts matches sitting on a plastic one with a cushion.

Equally, the maverick from Argentina spent much of the game in an uncomfortable-looking crouching position.

Bielsa will be encouraged by the way his team caused the defensively-poor champions so many problems but equally, knows they must regroup, learn and improve at the back.

For centre-back Robin Koch, it was a tough debut which started to go wrong when he conceded a penalty in the opening few minutes with Salah converting.

EPA

New signing Rodrigo gave away a costly late penalty as Leeds were denied a point at Anfield[/caption]

PA:Press Association

Leeds pushed Liverpool all the way at Anfield on their Premier League return[/caption]

When Jack Harrison grabbed a terrific leveller for Leeds, Bielsa refused to get off his bucket but punched the air and then took a sip of his drink .

The Leeds boss looked less than impressed with an easy header for Virgil Van Dijk and fingers were again pointing at Koch.

Van Dijk then gifted Patrick Bamford’s goal for 2-2 before Salah made it 3-2 with just over half an hour gone.

Yet here is where Bielsa’s team showed real guts.

Mat Klich smashed a terrific leveller for 3-3 and the visitors pushed for a win. While Salah clinched his hat-trick with another penalty for 4-3, Leeds and their charismatic coach should have left with a point.