Where has it gone wrong for Bielsa's struggling Uruguay?

Only a positive result against European champions Spain will prevent a humiliating early World Cup exit for Marcelo Bielsa's Uruguay.

Marcelo Bielsa will step down as Uruguay head coach after the 2026 World Cup

The former Leeds boss sought positives after draws with Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. "Now we have to play Spain with the necessity and obligation of winning," Bielsa said.

It was, he added, "an opportunity for the team to improve the impression they are making against a great opponent."

A positive spin on a bleak situation.

Friday night's match (Saturday 01:00 BST) had been billed before the tournament as a group decider, but defeat would leave Uruguay among the 16 sides eliminated before the knockout stage in the expanded 48-team tournament.

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Typically, Bielsa blames himself. "I am responsible for Uruguay only having two points from a possible six," he said.

At 70, he may be nearing the end of a colourful career at the top level. His work with Uruguay is hardly a convincing advert, and the performance crisis is clear.

Yet, for all their struggles in this tournament, there have been flashes of a level above much of what they produced over the past two years.

It had started so well. After the Qatar World Cup, Bielsa took over a team in need of generational change and, as with Chile before, inherited a group well suited to his dynamic, attacking style.

Uruguay made an impressive start to South America's World Cup qualifiers - winning away to Argentina, beating Brazil and - after six rounds - scoring almost twice as many goals as any other side.

Then came the 2024 Copa America. Uruguay began with a flurry of goals - and then hit a wall. Things have not been the same since.

In November they were thrashed 5-1 by the USA and his old protege Mauricio Pochettino, and when they snatched a draw against England at Wembley in March, they barely crossed halfway - unthinkable for a Bielsa side.

So where has it all gone wrong?

Part of the answer may lie beyond the coach's control. It is striking how many of Uruguay's players have failed to kick on at club level. Federico Valverde has yet to make an impact in the tournament, though he is now a star at Real Madrid.

Others appear to have stalled or regressed - Rodrigo Bentancur, Manuel Ugarte, Facundo Pellistri and Darwin Nunez among them.

Even so, Bielsa would be expected - and makes clear he shares that expectation - to get more from the resources at his disposal.

Has his model become too predictable? His high-press, suffocating style was once revolutionary but is now firmly in the mainstream.

Bielsa himself has shown doubts. Uruguay played no warm-up games before the World Cup, opting instead for intensive work on the training ground that produced a new system - Valverde wide right and two strikers. It failed, abandoned at half-time against Saudi Arabia, with a return to his familiar 4-3-3 bringing improvement.

After the break, and again against Cape Verde, Uruguay at least created chances — and without two moments of self-destruction would already be through to the last 32.

Yet tactics may not be the root cause. A more convincing explanation lies in personal relations. A month together during the 2024 Copa America appeared to strain the dressing room.

Luis Suarez said as much when he retired from international football, using a news conference to criticise what he considered Bielsa's lack of warmth, his treatment of players and the tense atmosphere in camp.

Notably, no-one in the squad moved to contradict Uruguay's all-time leading scorer.

Luis Suarez was in the stands during Uruguay's 2-2 draw with Cape Verde

One player, recently recalled winger Agustin Canobbio, had a blazing row with Bielsa, saying the breaking point came when the coach criticised the way he was sitting.

After the thrashing by the United States, Bielsa spoke openly about his own difficulties in relating to people, describing himself as a "toxic perfectionist".

It raises the possibility that his familiar blend of aloof eccentricity is less effective with modern players, who often look for a stronger personal connection with their coach.

Bielsa himself has reflected - in typically thoughtful fashion - that, for all the advances in sports science, enthusiasm matters more than preparation in getting a team to function as one. For whatever reason, over the past two years he has been unable to instil enough of that quality.

He has, at times, also appeared out of step with the modern game. He criticised the tournament's hydration breaks - a classic piece of Bielsa-ese - saying they "interfere with the culturally constructed conception of interpreting football. They add nothing..."

He also refused to take part in an official FIFA World Cup photoshoot. "I'm not a model," he said, after his picture was taken as he stared at the floor.

Bielsa will step down at the end of the tournament. Could that prospect bring a sense of relief - and renewed energy to the dressing room? Uruguay, as a wounded force, can be dangerous. If coach and players can reconnect as they did early in his tenure, Spain may yet be beaten and one of football's most compelling managerial careers extended a little longer.

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