Leeds v West Brom - Match preview

He helped Bielsa guide the Whites back to the promised land before an exit to try management himself, first with Huddersfield, briefly Olympiacos, and now Albion.

The Baggies’ 40-year-old head coach remains highly regarded in Yorkshire and has twice been linked with the post in under a year at The Hawthorns. There was interest.

His focus now, though, is on upsetting what is likely to be the usually intimidating Elland Road crowd under the lights this evening. Leeds, under new boss Daniel Farke, have taken just a point from two games and have Patrick Bamford, Liam Cooper, Stuart Dallas and Crysencio Summerville injured, among others, having seen an exodus this summer.

Corberan, however, is wary and praised the appointment of two-time Championship winner Farke. He said: “I think that Leeds, when you play against teams like this, or Southampton, or Leicester, when they are relegated from the Premier League they are going to have a transition period.

“Especially when you change the coach, and this happens normally in that scenario, but they still have Premier League players.

“In the case of Leeds, they have Premier League players from the last three years. They have a group of Premier League players.

“I know they are in this transition where some players don’t want to keep playing and they prefer the transfer, and other players will come.

“They have two or three new players who are probably going to be in the starting XI, and I know they’ll be a team with still more things to come in the market because they’re in this transition period.

“That doesn’t mean that they’re not dangerous now. Especially for me, these teams, after one defeat, are even more dangerous. They’re at home after one defeat and that’s the time you have to be ready because they’re going to go for the game.”

Corberan yesterday described legendary ex-Whites boss Bielsa – who has recently returned to the game in charge of Uruguay – as a “genius” and insists his mind and football ideas are ahead of most, if not all, in the game.

The pair do not have time to be in regular contact but Albion’s Spaniard insists Bielsa, aged 68 and with a record of almost 750 games in management, has always been there for him.

At 4pm today Uruguayan time, it is almost a certainty he will tune in for Leeds v Corberan’s Albion.

“Bielsa is a genius, genius means genius,” Corberan added passionately. “When you are working with a genius you can only learn. I tell you this because it’s true. He’s a genius because the way his team plays is totally different to every single coach in the world. Many people after start to replicate work he put in first time.

“His level of commitment to football is not normal, he gave his life for football and keeps giving his life for football. The respect for this is unbelievable.

“The way he leads one team and the football ideas he has...only his mind can develop. Not many managers in the world can do what can appear in his mind. This is something you can only know when you are working with him.

“The idea he is now moving in the national team he is working are ideas only he can implement - because he’s someone not following the routine of everyone. He’s doing what he thinks is the best, his mind arrives to points only his mind can arrive to, no other in the world, that’s why Marcelo is totally different.

“More than the shape he uses, the aggressiveness he is or whatever, it is not only about football, it is about what is (seen) in the back, what nobody watches or can see, is what makes him more special, only you can see this when you work with him.

“That’s why there is no money to pay for my two years with him, if you want to be a football coach. This happens with only a few coaches.

“Guardiola for me is a genius, a different one. There are more but my lack of knowledge doesn’t allow me to know more. Di Zerbi is one proving his ideas are fantastic too, the Newcastle coach is showing this, Emery is doing things very well.

“This country now, we don’t have the best players in the world, they don’t want to be here, but still the best coaches in the world are in this country in England, this is very positive for the level of football in the country.”

Corberan added: “When we are working, it is difficult to find gaps to have conversations, but I can tell you that whenever I needed him, he was there, any time in my life I needed Marcelo, before I called him he was there, because his mind is different.”

“I’ve no idea! (if he’ll watch)” the head coach said with a smile. “He has proved his love for Leeds in a level not everyone would show, the respect he has for Leeds after he leaves is massive in my opinion. He always will be happy for the best for Leeds, but I was working with him and he has proven a level of respect for me too.”