Leeds are confident they’re coming into the season in better physical condition than they were last year - The Athletic 8/8/21

By Phil Hay

One look at Marcelo Bielsa tells you that a full summer in England has done him good.

At York City yesterday it was Bielsa as you knew him — glaring, pacing, cajoling from the dug-out as Leeds United played out their last pre-season friendly against Villarreal — but on closer inspection, the signs of clean living were there. He looked trimmer and leaner, the product of a health kick and a concerted plan to get fitter. Nutrition and exercise have been as much a part of his pre-season as of his squad’s.

The squad itself? Trim and lean, as Bielsa’s players always are, in both body and in numbers.

It was three long years ago that Liam Cooper and Stuart Dallas cut out alcohol in advance to prepare for life with the uncompromising Argentinian but an already pretty skeletal frame did not stop the former from shedding a touch more weight this summer.

Leeds’ physical performance statistics are up according to the numbers at Thorp Arch and Bielsa is in situ, albeit amid the annual dance with his contract. Internally, Leeds think they are ready, or not so far away.

Beyond the confines of Elland Road and out in the wider world, the levels of anticipation feel more mixed.

This has not been a repeat of the club’s first Premier League transfer window when they pushed the boat out into record fees and Europe. They have their new left-back, Junior Firpo, although a minor injury prevented him from playing in their final two friendlies of the summer, against Ajax last Wednesday and Villarreal. He would be the solitary new name in Bielsa’s line-up at Manchester United next Saturday lunchtime as their Premier League campaign begins. And so, as the season and transfer deadline day come into view, two questions arise: are Leeds ready, and are Leeds doing enough?

Within the parameters of a Bielsa regime, Leeds think they are, notwithstanding the fact that they are still without a new central midfielder.

There is no denying that they want one. They lost their top target when Conor Gallagher took a loan to Crystal Palace instead. Bielsa picked apart Gallagher using video analysis and liked what he saw but Palace persisted in sweet-talking the player and parent club Chelsea. At Selhurst Park, he is closer to home and he might conceivably play more than if he’d come to Elland Road.

Leeds moved on to Lewis O’Brien at Huddersfield Town but at the time of writing, there is no agreement over the financial structure of a deal for the 22-year-old, who his club value at £8 million-plus. O’Brien was missing from Huddersfield’s season opener against Derby County yesterday but only because of a positive COVID-19 test.

This is where Victor Orta relies on his strategy of shortlisting fall-backs and contingencies, despite his confidence in pitching to Leeds’ first-choice targets. Bielsa is not excessive in asking for bodies or high budgets. But when it comes to delivering on his general wish list, he expects results.

That wish list in this window was never likely to stray far beyond a Firpo, a Gallagher (or an equivalent) and possibly a winger. As far back as last summer, Leeds were projecting a quieter summer this year, assuming their first season in the Premier League held together well. But the vacuum of activity creates ripples of doubt when a friendly result jars as it did in Amsterdam, where Leeds were beaten 4-0 by Ajax.

Over those 90 minutes, Bielsa’s team made hard work of the things they do well and easier work of the things they do badly. That side was also some way removed from his best XI and it was a typical pre-season fixture in as much as it offered few concrete conclusions. Firpo was missing and Diego Llorente, Bielsa’s most impressive centre-back during last season’s run-in, has a muscle strain. There was no Kalvin Phillips. It had the effect of making Leeds look a little rusty and laboured, and laboured is rarely a Bielsa look.

Pre-season under Bielsa, though, is rarely box-office viewing either. His friendlies blend into a mass of training in which players hit their limits (and in this period, have gone beyond their previous physical output).

In the Netherlands on Wednesday, Leeds also contested what was nominally described as an under-23s match against Ajax, before the main event a few hours later. Helder Costa and Tyler Roberts appeared in both games. Yesterday, before the 2-2 draw with Villarreal, there was a meeting with Manchester City’s under-23s at Thorp Arch, coming off the back of a double training session on Friday. Cody Drameh made up the numbers twice.

Bielsa has invariably done this: blitzed his squad while the friendlies are ticking by and then toned it down slightly in the last few days before the season begins, a little lull that refreshes the camp and lights the fuse. And every year, it has worked.

Very little in the football played since May suggests Bielsa is veering away from his standard formula or tactical model.

Leeds tried to work the wings at Ajax and were typically bloody-minded in playing out from the back. The depth of ability in their own line-up allowed Erik ten Hag’s Dutch champions to gobble up mistakes and a skillfully balanced press strangled Leeds in the right areas, neither too high nor too low. It was hard and it was unflattering but Bielsa was asking for treatment like this by finishing pre-season against two clubs who regularly compete in the latter stages of European competition.

Villarreal were invited to York rather than Elland Road because the new pitch at Elland Road is being saved for the home Premier League opener against Everton on August 21.

The Europa League champions were welcomed with the proverbial red carpet too as Leeds conceded within 10 seconds of kick-off as Alberto Moreno’s cross deflected in off Robin Koch. But Mateusz Klich equalised quickly and as the game progressed, the appetite, movement, competence and speed of thought were easier to recognise, like old habits renewed.

Later in the first half, Patrick Bamford scored a second by tucking away the rebound after Cooper’s header hit the crossbar. Villarreal’s Unai Emery was now the manager watching his squad fight the tide until the balance altered after the break and a late finish from Dani Raba levelled the match. Bielsa was frenetic and animated in the closing exchanges, unable to let the warm-up peter out.

Dallas, Leeds’ player of the year last season, said he thought the squad’s readiness for the Premier League was “more advanced” than 12 months ago. “When we came back for pre-season we were dead-on straight away,” he told The Athletic. “If anything, the lads keep coming back fitter and fitter. It’s starting to annoy me, actually. It’s like a competition to see who’s the fittest. I’m someone who likes to enjoy myself when I’m away!

“I think we’re in an even better position this time. Obviously we haven’t got results to go on yet, but I feel like we’re more equipped.”

If Bielsa fixated on results in the weeks of pre-season, some of them would torment him. He has, at different moments, seen Oxford United, Manchester United, Al-Ittihad and Ajax score four times against Leeds. He stood through a 3-0 pre-season defeat last September at Stoke City — a team Leeds had embarrassed in the Championship two months earlier.

One of the issues at this time of year is that Bielsa does not speak publicly until his press conference before the first day of the season. There are no post-match briefings after friendlies and no indications about what he is seeing; whether the football is making him happy, content, underwhelmed or pissed off. In terms of body language, he displays the same mannerisms on the touchline however the wind is blowing. That unreadable face leaves everyone guessing.

But with Bielsa, there are also established baselines.

His success in Leeds is not predicated on transfers or transfer expenditure, even if the club have more to do in this window. His success in Leeds is not predicated on having a big squad (or in the eyes of other managers, even adequate depth). It is not predicated on good pre-season scorelines, and is not predicated on how other clubs are spending.

He muscled in on the Premier League last season, his promoted side finishing ninth, and then told himself to get in the gym and shape up for a second crack at it.

The truth will out itself soon enough.

With Bielsa and Leeds, it usually does.