Marcelo Bielsa “made me the player I am,” says Jack Harrison of the former Leeds United manager.
On-loan Everton player Jack Harrison reflected on his experience at Elland Road under Bielsa.
Jack Harrison has worked for some big-name coaches in his career, but the Leeds United loanee confesses he still has ‘flashbacks’ to some of Marcelo Bielsa’s abrasive tactics.
Harrison is currently on loan at Everton under Sean Dyche, having previously worked with Patrick Viera in New York, Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, and Sam Allardyce at Leeds, as well as playing alongside Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo, and David Silva in his early years – but his real development came at Leeds under Bielsa.
“It was beyond anything I’d seen before,” said Harrison ahead of today’s Merseyside derby. “Because everything was so regimented and we were working so hard the three years almost flew by. I don’t think in all of that time I took a step back to really enjoy playing with him.
“Looking back, I just wish I had enjoyed it a little more in the moment, but I’m grateful.” Working with him and laying those foundations when I first returned to England helped shape me into the player I am now.
“I’m aware of the standard. If I ever get stuck or lose sight of where I need to be, I can always return to that point in time. Even when I’m on vacation, I’ll think to myself, ‘OK, I need to do something today.’ ‘Bielsa has drilled you so much,’ claim several of the players at Everton.
“It is a good kind of characteristic to have in your back pocket just in case you need it.”
For all the football input, his mother, Debbie, took him away from Liverpool’s academy when he was six and Manchester United’s academy when he was fourteen to send him to a boarding school in the United States for a better chance of success.
“Her giving me that opportunity at the time was definitely out of the ordinary.” She was a single mother and I was an only child. “I have to give all the credit to my mother,” Harrison stated. “When I returned to England, I wanted to do everything I could to repay her, whether it was a house, a car, or the fact that she no longer had to work.”
“When I went to New York and played professionally for the first time, I was really thankful to my mother because a lot of people were saying, ‘Oh, why didn’t you stay at Man United?'”
“I’d always had that in the back of my mind because I’d seen guys like Scott McTominay come up and smash it with the first team.” ‘What could have occurred if I’d stayed at United?’ I wondered. But after I arrived in New York and saw where I was, it offered me a new perspective in which I was able to thrive.
“At that point, I realized, ‘It doesn’t matter what happened; this is my path now.'” Because there is nothing you can do about the past, you must focus on the future.”
