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Marcelo Bielsa insists Leeds midfielder Mateusz Klich has absolutely nothing to apologise for after his tackle on Antonio Rudiger resulted in an added-on time defeat at Chelsea on Saturday.

Leeds battled hard at the home of the European champions and were moments away from a hard-earned point. But with seconds ticking away, Klich was adjudged to have – somewhat harshly – fouled Rudiger in the area to gift Chelsea a last-gasp penalty. That was a chance gleefully accepted by Jorginho as the Blues recorded a scarcely-deserved 3-2 victory.

The fall-out from the game saw Klich come in for some unnecessarily-vindictive abuse on social media, forcing the Pole to close his account.

Of course, 99.9% of Leeds fans fully understand what Klich has done for the club and remain fully supportive of the player.

Now Bielsa too, speaking ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Manchester City, insists Klich has nothing to apologise for.

“Football is a game that contains errors,” Bielsa insisted. “To imagine footballers without mistakes, we take away this inhibition needed in a creative game. Nobody wants to make errors. It combines prudence and the capacity to this.

“If you look at all the goals from the weekend, there were lots of mistakes.”

Bielsa on Raphinha

Raphinha was once again on the scoresheet for Leeds at the weekend, brilliantly slotting home a ‘no-look’ penalty. That takes the Brazilian to seven goals for the season.

Bielsa though insists Leeds are working hard to find other goal avenues, particularly in the ongoing absence of Patrick Bamford.

“Individuals always have a lot of incidence in the game. We aspire the goals are scored, participation of one player in particular, but try to go down all possible paths to score,” he said.

Leeds’ other scorer on the day was teenager Joe Gelhardt and Bielsa insists the strike can give him confidence.

“For a goalscorer, young or not, a goal always improves their self-esteem.”

Unfortunately for Leeds, they have dropped more points from winning positions than any other side this season.

That’s an attribute unusual in a Bielsa side. However, the boss is refusing to analyse too much about it.

“I value that point and am grateful you bring it to the scene. This, I did not know. I have not analysed it fully. Some theories: We continue to attack once when we go ahead, sometimes to not make mistakes you give the ball to the opponent, but that allows them to attack you more.”

Bielsa on Man City ‘weaknesses’

Leeds managed to take four points off Tuesday’s opponents Manchester City last season and more of the same would be welcomed.

However, when asked if Leeds had exposed their weaknesses, Bielsa instead claimed that discredited from two excellent displays from his side.

“I don’t think we exploited fragilities in the games against them last season,” he said. “At City, I see a constant evolution of the variables defensively.

“Players of different characteristics combine in different parts of the pitch. So many combinations. Players of different characteristics, central attackers out wide, offensive midfielders as attackers, defensive midfielders as wingers. [We had] different types of wingers tendency of diagonal in behind or diagonal dropping in, the tradition of the full-backs, interpretation of the mixed midfielder as one more offensive midfielder. Risk-taking playing out from the back.”

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