The heartbeat of every Marcelo Bielsa side, the Enganche

Enganche
[en-gan-che] /noun (Spanish)
1 Hooking, linking, connecting
2 Piece or part used to hook or hook

A staple of Argentinian football. The playmaker, the Number 10, traditionally required to occupy the space between the midfield and attack. A role that required little defensive output, but rather to always be available when needed in attack, although this has changed in recent years. Bielsa like most Argentinian coaches loves them, his sides always had them.

At Athletic Bilbao he used Iker Muniain, Ander Herrera and Oscar De Marcos. During his time with Chile he used Mattias Fernandez, Jean Beausejour and Jorge Valdivia. For Argentina he used Seba Veron, Pablo Aimar and Ariel Ortega (but weirdly not Juan Riquelme which baffled Argentina fans given he is regarded as the embodiment of an Enganche over there). At Lille he used Yassine Benzia and finally and perhaps most famously, at Marseille he realised Dimitri Payet would make a better Enganche then a winger.

It’s a position that requires great vision, technique, the ability to hold on to the ball and carry it at pace and great passing ability. It’s also the reason Bielsa, no matter how much people want won't play two strikers. He would have to sacrifice the Enganche to do so and as he explained himself, two strikers may impact the teams creativity. He famously refused to play Hernan Crespo (at the time one of the best strikers in the world) because he couldn't fit him in the side wit Batistuta. If he couldn't find room to play Crespo with Batistuta then we can safely say he won't be in a rush to play Eddie and Paddy together.





When Bielsa spoke about Samu Saiz he described him as "unique", a player with skills "few players have and the most skilled player in our team". Leeds fans may have been surprised by that statement, Saiz had always been a bit hit and miss and his end product was always lacking. It was easy to see why he had spent his entire career as a second tier player. However, Bielsa saw him as someone who could play a unique role that requires skills few players have, in context with the Enganche role you can see what he meant. Saiz could find space in between midfield and attack, he could hold on to the ball and carry it forward at pace and while lacking, on occasion he did have great vision.

Bielsa doesn't seem that keen on Eddie Nketiah so far, not keen enough to start him anyway. He has his main striker (whether people like it or not) and as Crespo found out if you can't adapt to a different role you won't play. As Phil Hay said, Bielsa is yet to be convinced by Nketiah, until either he adapts to a new role or Bamford gets injured then Nketiah wont play. Bielsa has been after an Enganche since Saiz left, it just wasn't obvious.

When the Dan James links came out, we all naturally assumed he would use the pacey Welsh star as a winger. Was that Bielsa’s plan or did he have him in mind as an Enganche. If you look at the list of pre Bielsa Enganche players, a lot of them were wingers or traditional central midfielders first; Veron, Herrera, Muniain, De Marcos, Matty Fernandez, Beausejour, Payet and Benzia, none of them were traditional Number 10s before Bielsa. This summer the club failed to get Bielsa his Enganche for a second window in a row. Marcelo Bielsa seemed very keen on Rangers and former Liverpool winger Ryan Kent. This is confirmed by media sources and by the fact that scouted him in person pre season. And similarly to Dan James, Kent could have been his Enganche. Saiz, small, low centre of gravity, able to carry the ball at pace. You can swap Saiz for Kent because he is exactly the same, only difference is he had largely played as a winger.




Perhaps the club weren’t willing to pay the steep asking price, maybe Bielsa didn’t see the player he needed in Kent after seeing him play. Victor Orta put all his effort into signing Nketiah, the club wanted another striker after Roofe left, did the club overrule Bielsa? This side is severely lacking that Enganche, that Aimar type player, who can create opportunities from central areas. Dare we say, they are missing Samu Saiz.

So how does Bielsa fix the issue? Tyler Roberts has done a decent job in the Number 10 role previously, he can carry the ball at pace, but he does lack the vision, technical skill and creativity of a traditional Enganche. Hernandez? He has the vision, creativity that Roberts lacks but lacks the pace these days. Bogusz? Shackleton? Bielsa has some good attacking midfield options but does he have a true Enganche at his disposal.

A Bielsa side without an Enganche isn't a Bielsa side in its truest terms. The role is synonymous with Bielsa and Argentinian sides in general, unfortunately it is a unique role that requires unique skills that few players possess. Klich has had a go, Forshaw, Roberts, Roofe, Hernandez, Shacks and even briefly the ever versatile Stuart Dallas. The single biggest recruitment mistake we have made, not just this summer but last January too has been not replacing Saiz.

Enganche, playmaker, Number 10, Trequartista, whatever you want to call it. We had one when Bielsa arrived, we let him go, that is fine, but we haven‘t replaced him. So what is the solution? Pablo Hernandez or Tyler Roberts seem like the obvious solutions at our disposal, but it is a move away from the more defensive setup we have seen so far this season but I’m sure most Leeds fans would quite happily forfeit that for a more attacking formation.

We just looked better with Saiz, our playmaker, our Enganche in the side.


Content by cjay from the Enganche thread in our discussion forums.