That is correct. I remember Bielsa at Marseille and he was doing really well until fitness became an issue in the 2nd part of the season, but I think he was challenging for the league (top of the league after half of the season).
The previous season, Marseille was 6th with 60 pts, PSG was top at 89 pts.
So having 41 pts at MD 19, 2 ahead of Lyon and 3 ahead of PSG was something.
But after that, they lost the MD 20 game, and Lyon went ahead.
At MD 25, Marseille was still 2nd with 49 pts. Lyon was 1st at 51 pts and PSG was 3rd at 49 pts as well.
Then MD 26, they drew.
At MD 31, Marseille was still 3rd at 57 pts, while PSG was top at 62 pts and Lyon 2nd with 61 pts.
Monaco 4th with 55 pts.
At MD 32, Marseille lost, while Monaco won.
Now we have PSG at 65 pts, Lyon at 64 pts, Monaco at 58 pts, Marseille at 55 pts.
They finish the season 4th.
The league table was: PSG at 83 pts, Lyon at 75 pts, Monaco at 71 pts, Marseille at 69 pts.
Given they were top of the league after all the first games, they should have won but something happened.
Still, it shows that his teams are not about just attacking, and defense is also a part of it.
But Leeds has poor quality.
It goes back to the eternal discussion about whether a manager is only great if he succeeds with "poor" teams/players.
Well, as Bielsa shows, his tactics are only applicable with "great" players.
If Bielsa has a world class defense, his teams would win like Pep's City teams, blowing away goals and not conceding much.
Does that make Bielsa poor? Absolutely not.
There are some really amazing tactical ideas from Bielsa that are somewhat unique to him.
In France, we made fun of his 2nd part of the season, but the way he pushes his forward line to compress the opposition and create space for his 2nd line?
I've never seen that before and I always found that fascinating because it's absolutely counter intuitive for me.