Marcelo Bielsa admits he has copied Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool title-winners to help Leeds ’ promotion bid.
Bielsa is interested in winning managers and he has analysed Klopp’s Reds as they have stormed to their first title in 30 years in record-breaking fashion.
The Leeds boss plays a similar high-energy pressing game to Klopp and says he has picked up pointers from him.
“In this season, Liverpool and Klopp have been the reference for everybody in football,” said Bielsa.
“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.”
Bielsa hopes Leeds can emulate Liverpool by finding their goalscoring groove following their disappointing 2-0 loss at Cardiff last Sunday when they face promotion rivals Fulham at Elland Road on Saturday.
Liverpool were back to their exhilarating best against Crystal Palace on Wednesday after their lacklustre display in the derby and Bielsa hopes Leeds can also find top gear.
“We have examples like Liverpool and we have opposite examples as well,” he said. “We have seen teams score a lot immediately and others, which have needed a game to get going.
“We know we need to start scoring and winning again.”
Leeds will move 10 points clear of Fulham if they win, but Bielsa refuses to see the clash as decisive.
“The eight matches left are going to generate the same expectation,” he said. “Until the situation is defined, every match is important.
“This has more meaning because we are playing the direct and closest team to us in the fight for promotion.”
Bielsa also claims Leeds cannot just focus on stopping Aleksandar Mitrovic, who has bagged 23 Championship goals.
“One player with quantity of goals he has scored, we just can’t analyse him,” he said.
“He does have a lot of resources to score. He appears in the right moment, he has ability to finish chances and he can score in different ways.”
