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by Nyle Farooqui
(Follow Nyle on Twitter @FarooquiNyle and on Instagram @nylefarooqui & his @theultimateatlantaunitedfan)
Marcelo Bielsa is an inspiration to current and aspiring coaches. The way Bielsa conveys emotion truly shows how much care he puts into everything he does and because of that you are starting to see it be more of a normality with coaches such as Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.
Football is an emotional game so you have to match that moment. What Bielsa has done in a way sets a path for proper coaching. The emotional aspect may not always be yelling and gesturing while in a match, but that also means interacting with players on a daily basis and putting an arm around them if you want to guide them in certain ways as you want to get the best out of them.
You are seeing coaches do this more and more as it has become something essential to their success. Bielsa would reflect on this himself, “Emotion is the most important capacity of the coach.” People have to show care with the people they are working with as if they are family.
Bielsa sees football as more than just the industry he works in but something that he lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps daily. He goes through obsessive periods of studying and analyzing his team even at home late throughout the night. Football is something that he loves because if he didn't love it, then why take the job and put himself through the emotional turmoil?
Managers should be people who see football as life. That is important in terms of bringing 100% commitment to the job because if you don’t, the fans and the players themselves will sense it which will not make any situation for a manager ideal. The managers who do bring this 100% commitment gain the trust of the players and the fans which has been the key to the success of these top managers in the world today.
When managing a team, Bielsa believes you have to have plans that you truly believe in yourself or else it is difficult. “It is very difficult to convince if one proposes something in which one does not believe it to death.” He is right, there is no denying that, take a look at Jürgen Klopp and his gegenpressing style at Liverpool.
This is something that Klopp deeply believes in to the point that he has his team drilled on this to great amounts in training. It is something that Liverpool has established in themselves which has made them a dominant team in Europe over the past couple of years. Jürgen Klopp’s beliefs have been transmitted to his players, he lives and breathes this style of gegenpressing.
If you have not understood the importance of Bielsa, I hope you are starting to now as he has done so much to set an example for the top managers in the world and aspiring managers with how he expresses himself, his work rate, his mentality, and simply everything about him.