Bielsa’s reputation includes his work with young players, and introducing them to first team football. Apparently, this is done in a very orderly and considerate manner.
At Leeds, Phillips was immediately from Bielsa’s very first game 3 years ago promoted to the first team, so he doesn’t really count. Since then, Shackleton has had some games as back-up for injured players, mostly, and Meslier did so well and kept his position after Kiko had served his 8 game ban. Jach Harrison admittedly has progressed a lot since his first, rather weak season. Jack Clarke was doing good until that fatal day in Nottingham (I think it was…), but got close to zero game-time when he came back on loan. But that’s about it. So here’s my question: are our famous young players not really that good, or is Bielsa being over-cautious? Or is his ability as a magician, transforming mediocre players into useful PL-players his only real strength?
He needs to develop cooper.