Marcelo Bielsa was not in Busan to hear the World Cup draw that pitted his Argentina team against England. Not even the attractions of an exhibition of Korean folk dancing could persuade him to travel halfway around the world for an event over which he had no control.

"I didn't go to the draw because my presence would have contributed nothing," Bielsa told the Argentine press. "You can't suggest, give instructions, participate or evaluate. You can only accept the luck of the draw."

For Bielsa, a man who seems to spend every waking moment studying ways to give his team an edge over the opposition, this would have been the very definition of a waste of time.

As is appropriate for the coach of a team rated by many as joint favourites, along with defending champions France, to lift the trophy, Bielsa put a positive spin on the first-round pool.

"I celebrate the fact that we've been handed matches that make life worth living. Playing against England is a hell of a game and who wouldn't want to be in that situation? Playing against Nigeria is also a challenge. It's what we dream of all our lives and, now, there it is."

Bielsa can draw on a pool of talent that would be the envy of most coaches. Up front he has the most expensive striker in history, and pulling the strings in midfield is the subject of the highest fee ever paid by a British club. As well as Hernan Crespo and Juan Sebastian Veron, he can call on a who's who of top-level European football, from Kily Gonzalez and Pablo Aimar of Valencia to Gabriel Batistuta and Walter Samuel of Roma and Javier Zanetti and Roberto Ayala of Internazionale.

"I must admit the Argentine team has advantages because of the richness of its pool of footballers which offers options in every position," he says. "Really, it's a rich squad."

And it is a squad not so different from the one that Daniel Passarella took to the quarter-finals in France '98. Clearly, four years on they are more experienced, but it is the coach's contribution that has forged them into a potentially great team.

Bielsa was not an obvious choice for the job. He made his name in Mexico and had barely got his feet under the table at the Barcelona club, Espanyol, when his country came calling in 1998. He brought with him a system modelled on the version of Dutch "total football" that brought the European Cup to Louis van Gaal's Ajax in 1995. His 3-3-1-3 formation relies on the whole team working hard to win the ball back and then attacking at pace and in waves, playing as much as possible in the opposition half.

After a sticky start it has been remarkably successful. Argentina lost only one of their 18 World Cup qualifiers, away to Brazil, winning 13 and drawing four, scoring 42 goals in the process.

Bielsa has always been his own man. In his one brief spell in charge of a top Argentine side, in 1998, he was called loco for his insistence on playing with two teenage centre-backs, but he had the last laugh when his Velez Sarsfield side won the league.

The nickname El Loco has stuck, but it describes an obsessive anorak more than a teacup-chucking maniac. Bielsa is famed for his attention to detail and his studious video-watching. As a player he was a mediocre defender, managing a handful of appearances for his hometown club Newell's Old Boys. Now 46, he runs every day but with little visible effect on his waistline.

Juan Pablo Sorin, one of the few members of the squad not to play in Europe, calls Bielsa "the most attack-minded coach in the world". Sorin told the Argentine sports daily Ole: "He's the type of coach who makes you win matches. You get to notice which coaches are winners and which aren't. He's managed to get to the stage where if two or three players are missing, the team doesn't change."

But the fans were slow to warm to Bielsa. The system has room for only one central striker, which means that Batistuta, a goalscoring phenomenon in Italy, was a bit-part player in the qualifiers behind Crespo, although he still contributed five goals.

It was only in March during a 5-0 victory over Venezuela that followed an impressive win in Italy that the Buenos Aires fans began to chant his name.