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.

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.