Leeds United’s attacking midfielder Samuel Saiz recently opened up about the impact new manager Marcelo Bielsa has had on him and at the club and how Bielsa has transformed him to play for the team more instead of being an individual player. Saiz has been playing well so far in the Championship. However, Bielsa would like him to get on the scoresheet, and assists chart more regularly.
Saiz was quoted as saying,”This season I am more collective. I am less individual than last season. I work more for the team. “I do not score as many goals as I wish, but I do not do the individual actions I used to do. I think I have improved on other aspects in comparison with last year.
“Last season when we found out we could not make it to the playoffs it was a moment that was hard for me. I had less motivation because I could not reach the objective. It is a problem that I had and it cannot happen again.”
We could legitimately call Saiz one of the most hardworking men on the pitch, and even though he is yet to score this season in the league, his impact has been immense. The way he drives forward with the ball without wasting too much time has caused a lot of problem to the opposition defence. His movement is always fluid and he can be seen almost everywhere on the pitch.
The Spaniard opened up about how Bielsa has changed things around the team. He said,”I feel better because Marcelo made the whole team be more aggressive from a football point of view, not from outside of football.
“We are focused on being aggressive playing football. This season we trust more in each other. It is very hard for the opponent to have a chance to score and thanks to all this I feel safer and I am less aggressive, apart from the football on the pitch.”
Saiz has had disciplinary issues before but he looked calmer and focused on the pitch than previous years. Off late he has been guilty of not being able to provide finishing touches to his game and that is one thing he needs to work on at the moment. There is no real no. 10 in the squad apart from him so one can say the 27-year-old doesn’t have too much competition for places at the moment. However, when Izzy Brown would be back fit, he would make a claim for the attacking midfielder role.
Saiz’s appetite and willingness to get in good positions is immense and if he continues to work further on his game with Bielsa, he can take his game up a notch higher. It’s good to hear a player’s account on how the new manager has managed to transform him into a more team player.
