In the 14 seconds before the ball reached the feet of Pablo Hernandez, West Brom had kicked off and launched a long pass into Leeds United’s half of the pitch.
Liam Cooper had headed the ball clear and Jack Harrison had dribbled down the left wing to the edge of West Brom’s penalty area. All 20 outfield players on the pitch were in perpetual motion.
But then the ball was passed to Hernandez, and he stopped still. Two seconds later, it was in the top corner of West Brom’s goal, and Elland Road was shaking to its foundations.
In Argentina, they call it la pausa. When so much of football is a blur, it takes a player of class and courage to stand still and wait for the game to open itself up for them.
In Marcelo Bielsa’s homeland, they typically look to the No.10, the enganche, to provide la pausa. But Bielsa has never been one to indulge such talents. If the nine other outfield players are going to run themselves to exhaustion, then the tenth must do the same, even if that means denying himself the ethereal talents of Juan Roman Riquelme or Samuel Saiz.
In Bielsa’s world, there was no time to pause. Until he met Pablo Hernandez.
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