Leeds United continued their fantastic week with a 3-1 win against Yorkshire rivals Barnsley in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night
This victory takes Leeds to four games unbeaten with two or more goals scored in each of those games so far.
Leeds beat Chelsea 3-0 on Sunday in the Premier League, which many believe is their best win and performance so far under Jesse Marsch.
For most fans, this has drawn a line under the era of Marcelo Bielsa and truly kick-started the Marsch regime once and for all. The style of play appears much more coherent and he has the players now for his system.
Phil Hay, speaking on The Athletic’s Football podcast, claims changes have been made to training sessions and the intensity of them, but also the type of training too, he said: “One of the things that changed in training this summer is that they went from focusing a lot on distance covered in individual training sessions under Bielsa. He wanted them to run and run, which really worked for him.”
The ball-oriented pressing requires a different type of intensity to Bielsa’s man-to-man marking, Hay added: “Because Marsch was [is] pressing zonally he wanted to create drills which focused more on short bursts of acceleration, as opposed to needing them to cover specific differences.”
He also says that sessions lasted longer under Bielsa, saying that Marsch allows more time for recovery, he said: “He’s softer when it comes to the length of training sessions generally, especially in the couple of days before games to let legs recover.”
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Although I do not buy into the general idea that players ever burnt out physically under Bielsa, and that it was more of a mental burnout, these revelations do point to the idea that players were physically and mentally struggling.
It can’t be coincidence that Leeds picked up so many injuries last season when sessions were as intense as described by Hay. Soft tissue injuries or muscular problems are far more likely to occur in such circumstances.
Impact injuries cannot be avoided but here’s hoping that Marsch’s approach at least helps the players rest somewhat easier.
Despite Bielsa’s methods clearly working for a long time, perhaps it was time to change and drop the training intensity a little, especially if it then aids the intensity during competitive fixtures.