Christiansen wants to bring a little bit of Cruyff to Leeds United

Well this would be nice, wouldn’t it?

New Head Coach Thomas Christiansen has links to famous footballers. When he signed for Barcelona as a teenager, he was signed by none other than footballing legend Johann Cruyff. When being introduced to the media Christiansen had a lot to say about what kind of team he’d like to run and who he’d like to emulate at Leeds:

"Everyone has their way to coach, to perform with the team, but of course he was very important.

"There were many things that I didn't understand, that he showed us, normal things for me now to understand, but in that moment I couldn't see it because he was a genius - on the pitch, coaching.

"He's the one who also changed football a little bit and this is one of the things I want to bring to Leeds."

Pretty wild stuff, huh?

Christiansen, a veteran of both La Liga and the Bundesliga having played for Oviedo and Villarreal in Spain and Bochum and Hannover in Germany, has said that he understands that while fans want attacking, attractive football, the results are what matters, saying:

“All coaches have different ways of seeing football. The most important thing is to be effective and take results.

“Everyone wants to play nice football – attractive, having the ball, scoring a lot of goals – but at the end if you don’t take the points you’re not doing anything.

“I have to adapt to Leeds, the team and the system but I will die with my ideas and my philosophy, and not being stupid – by knowing what is the best to do in each moment.”

While this is just talk, it is good to see that the new manager knows that the ultimate goal for Leeds United is gain promotion back to the Premier League, and that results are the only thing that really matters. It is also good to see that he has his while he has his own philosophy of playing football, he is flexible enough to adapt his tactics to the personnel at the club.

So while the Cryuff talk makes for a great headline, the takeaway really should be that Christiansen knows that while he has his own ideas, that he needs to adapt to the team he has and that results are absolutely the most important thing to the club, with promotion the absolute goal for the club.