This one took place back in 2012 during the Europa League semifinals, Marcelo Bielsa will never forget the praise he got from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Sir Alex Ferguson doesn’t give praise to a lot of his peers like he did with Marcelo Bielsa back in the 2012 Europa League semifinal. To set the stage, we have to give you a proper rundown of what that Athletic Bilbao club was under the Argentine manager.
Bielsa was younger than he is today but he still had his ideals set in stone. He didn’t compromise with any of his players and always demanded 110 percent from each of them. We have to understand the significance of getting access to the Europa League final with a team filled with only Basque players.
No other feat like it had been done before that. Manchester United wasn’t the same club they were in previous seasons but they were still highly competitive under Alex Ferguson. During that semifinal, Bielsa recalled something from Sir Alex he will never forget.
Bielsa gets high praise from Sir Alex Ferguson.
After losing the semifinal against Athletic Bilbao, Sir Alex Ferguson approached Bielsa: “He gave me praise that I never forgot,” said the Leeds head coach via The Mirror. “He said he wasn’t surprised that Athletic had won. He also said he wasn’t surprised how much our team ran to be on equal terms with them.
“What did surprise him was on the day of the game, in the morning, my team had trained for an hour-and-a-half. I never forgot that comment from him. There is something that justifies training on the day of the game. Of course, the training consumes some energy that would be needed in the game.
“But that training session showed the players where to run, it co-ordinated them. That allowed them to run less in the game because they were in the correct positions.”
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