Marcelo Bielsa apologises for not conducting media interviews in English

Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa has apologised for not speaking English when conducting media interviews.

The language barrier has been no obstacle to Bielsa in leading the club back to the Premier League and establishing them as a mid-table side in their first season in the top flight since 2004.

But the 65-year-old Argentinian said: "I owe an apology to those who have to listen to me, that I haven't learned English.

"One of my big deficits through my passage in English football is not to be able to communicate in the language that everybody speaks."

Bielsa has been heard shouting instructions to his players in English on matchdays and was asked how he communicated to his players during training.

"In one way it debilitates me, the fact that I haven't been able to learn how to speak English," he said. "One of the bigger tools that a coach has is to transmit his message through his words.

"One of the things I've dedicated the most time to while I've been a coach is to be able to speak well.

"If there's something I like to do, and it's taken me a long time, is to lend the significance and the definition of words and to say in the most simple way, without losing the richness, of what I want to say."

Bielsa has proved hugely successful and equally popular in England since arriving at Elland Road in the summer of 2018.

Leeds, currently ninth in the table, will bid to extend their six-game unbeaten league run at Brighton on Saturday after taking five points from their last three matches against Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United.

"Pressure is indispensable," he added. "We play better with pressure. With five games left to play, the opinion over the performance level of Leeds, this evaluation can be maintained or improved depending on results.

"What happens in the last five can generate decisive conclusions."