The Ultimate 2018-19 Hipster team The Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United

Take a noble fall of English football that for years wallows among the minor English leagues, then add us the most eccentric-crazy-competent-manic-obsessive-compulsive guru of contemporary football and there you will have the perfect hipster fetish team of this season. After the first five days of Championship, the love story between Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United is the most beautiful and unexpected tales that European football is offering at the moment. Watching the maniacally tactical football of Bielsa applied to the still rude and confusing game of the Championship is a pleasure for the eyes and - for now - also for the ranking of Peacocks: they are first with 13 points together with Middlesbrough. It seems to see one of those American sit-com love stories, in which the strange dude of the class comes out and falls in love with the beautiful, intelligent and low-key girl. These stories never run smoothly, you just have to wait for the moment when Bielsa will go crazy for a piece of paper on the ground, the team will leave and Leeds United will return the forgotten Cinderella of English football. For now, however, everything is fine and then it is worth to throw in this precise mix of football nostalgia and tactical hipsterism.

La Locura

Marcelo Bielsa is a football genius. He - like a real guru -unconsciously founded a school of coaches that make tactics and psychology their winning weapons: Pochettino, Simeone, Sampaoli and also Pep Guardiola are among the followers. However, the Rosario-born coach is more known to the general public for his obsessive-compulsive obsessions and coup-du-teatre, like when he walked away from Lazio after just two days or when he left Marseille after just one game of Ligue 1).

As their Argentine coach is quick to point out, it’s far too early to make any calls but the signs are good. The team have developed a high intensity, attractive style of play that is taking the English second tier by storm. Leeds have already established themselves as one of the few teams in English football that use positional play. They play out from the back with confidence and circulate the ball quickly — all while moving fluidly within a well thought out structure. Leeds lineup in a nominal 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3. The defensive midfielder drops to form a triangle with the center-backs in the buildup phase while the full-backs push up in support of the wingers who have the freedom to cut inside. The attacking midfielders play relatively free roles and the center-forward acts as a focal point. This basic structure is the scaffolding for a highly fluid and dynamic team. The result is a Little Barcellona or Sarri's Napoli playing in one the most backward leagues from tactical point of view.

The idea of Andrea Radrizzani - Italian owner of Leeds United - is to replicate what Ranieri did with Leicester: apply a very precise tactical identity in a tactically disorganized championship. Pink is scarce, we do not have to go around it. However, the game and the psychology of Bielsa can dramatically enhance the quality of mediocre players, so Leeds is a reservoir of strange players and with complex stories to fall in love with. Among these we have selected:

- Samuel Saiz, midfielder. Talent grew up in Real Madrid and then evaporated in the Spanish minor series before being reborn in Leeds at age 26.

- Pablo Hernandez, external. Ex-Valencia and Swansea is perhaps the only really known name present in pink. He tried to establish himself in La Liga between Valencia and Getafe, he is one of those players who has a painful two-year break in Dubai. He has already signed 4 assists.

- Mateusz Klich, playmaker. The 28-year-old born in Krakow is a good central midfielder, also entered in the Polish national team. Bielsa is turning him into a box-to-box midfielder, he has already scored two goals since the start of the season.