World Cup 2026: Where has it gone wrong for Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay?

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.