Luis Suarez complains about culture under Uruguay’s Marcelo Bielsa: ‘Players are going to reach a limit and explode’

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Luis Suarez said he feels “hurt” by the culture instilled by manager Marcelo Bielsa within the walls of the Uruguayan national team.

Suarez, who in September announced his retirement from the national team, told DSports Uruguay on Thursday evening “players are going to reach a limit and explode.”

“There were situations that occurred at the Copa America that hurt to see, that I didn’t talk about for the good of the group,” Suarez said. “It’s going to continue to happen. The players are going to reach a limit and explode. At the Copa America, there were players who told me ‘Luis, I’ll play the Copa America and then I won’t play again.’

“That tells you that we’re nearing a difficult situation. Then you get over it and you return because you love your country. We all love representing our country.”

Suarez painted a grim picture of what it’s been like as both a staffer and player under Bielsa. He said national team staffers enjoyed the day-to-day environment during the tenures of long-time manager Óscar Tabárez and Diego Alonso, who led Uruguay to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Alonso was fired after Uruguay crashed out of the tournament.

Suarez said the team’s culture has always been demanding but staffers enjoyed spending time with the players and working extra hours just to be part of the process. “All of that has been lost at the training complex,” he said.

“During my last call up some of us were playing cards and (Bielsa’s) staff would walk around and glance our way as if to be on the lookout for anyone who was playing cards,” Suarez continued. “I don’t know. There were a lot of things that caught my attention.”

A representative for Uruguay’s national team did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Suarez described his relationship with Bielsa as “professional” and said he only had one personal conversation with the 69-year-old coach before last summer’s Copa America. Suarez also highlighted the lack of communication between Bielsa and his players.

“There were a lot of players who set up a meeting (with Bielsa) to ask the coach to at the very least greet us with a good morning,” Suarez said. “He wouldn’t even say hello. I had a five-minute meeting with him as a leader of the team and in the end, he only responded with a ‘thank you very much.'”

Uruguay players line up in the penalty shootout during the Copa America third-place match. (Photo: Omar Vega / Getty Images) A recent report in Uruguay claimed Bielsa tasked winger Agustín Canobbio, 26, to serve as a ball boy during a training session.

Suarez clarified Bielsa had instead made Canobbio train with a small group of U-20 players who traveled with the team in what is commonly known in South America as sparring groups, players who mimic opponents’ tendencies and train with the team. They are not part of the official tournament squad.

“He had (Canobbio) make passes that for half of the Copa America were passes that only sparring players made,” Suarez said. “And (Bielsa) then had the sparring players train as regular players. You can’t let a player who is in the 26-man squad for a Copa America believe that he’s there to do what a sparring player does.

“It’s a complete lack of respect. It makes me angry. I’m going to support (Canobbio) on this one because he kept it together.”

Suarez said before Uruguay’s final group stage match against the United States, Bielsa had only the starters train while the substitutes were asked to remain at the team hotel. Suarez did not start against the Americans. Per Suarez, he only had one official training session alongside Liverpool center forward Darwin Núñez.

“We always trained at different times of the day,” Suarez said. “Why wouldn’t I want to spend time with Maxi Araújo and Nico de la Cruz who is a close friend of mine? I wanted to train with Ronald (Araújo) and test him in a training session. The harmony of the group and the positive energy, good training session, lead to strong performances.

“But when you train at different times it’s difficult. You usually know when you’re starting or if you’ll be a substitute, but when you’re that far removed from the group … that’s a big deal. You respect it and move on but that’s how I felt at that moment.”

Suarez added after the team arrived at their hotel in New York one night, one of Bielsa’s assistants told players still seated on the team bus Bielsa did not want them to stop and greet the fans. They were told to walk straight into the hotel.

“I stood up and told the coach that I respected that, but as a captain and to respect and appreciate the fans, something I have always done, we as players would decide to stop and greet the fans. We agreed and walked off the bus, split up and spent time with the fans.

“The next day we had a team talk and (Bielsa) began to say things that Uruguayans compete, that Uruguayans do this and that. And then he said ‘Who does the Uruguayan play for? For the people.’ And I swear we all began to look at each other like ‘For the people? Yesterday you asked us not to speak to them.'”

Uruguay had a strong Copa America, at times displaying expansive and attractive football under Bielsa. However, their participation was marred by a chaotic incident of fan violence between Uruguay’s players and Colombia supporters following Uruguay’s elimination from the competition in the semifinal stage.

Suarez , a member of the Uruguay side that won the 2011 Copa America, said he was grateful to retire affectionately from the national team. Yet, it’s clear Suarez walked away from a situation he no longer recognized.

“Sometimes it’s easy to talk and have the people hear what they want you to hear,” Suarez said. “But those aren’t always the true stories about what’s going on and that hurts. It hurts to see what’s happening today.”

(Top photo: Juan Mabromata / AFP via Getty Images)

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