Interesting comments from him yesterday on Bielsa’s intensity of training.
Interesting comments from him yesterday on Bielsa’s intensity of training.
Think it's somewhat overblown. The journalists needs stories and this is a good one to stoke up interest.
However, there is some truth to it. while we may have been one of the most conditioned teams we also tended to have lots of injuries. with a small squad that's a tough combination in the Prem.
It's Marsch's team now. He'll get the credit or the blame.
It was talk sport making a story out of nothing, yet we still have a few leeds fans going on about bielsa on twitter, ffs he's gone, get over it....
What he said was correct, he inherited a very fit squad, but the training was to intense, that's all.
Hes tried to take away the pressure and just focus on our games, nothing else...
Where he can he's given the players a break to ease the pressure.. we now have players with smiles on there faces, rodrigo Raphinia for sure.
The results have proved his methods have worked... I have nothing against Bielsa buts it's football, Jesse is now in charge..
I see this two ways
1- I think its been overblown by the media as everything is
2- He hasn't achieved anything we got incredibly lucky against Wolves, nearly bottled it against Norwich, were gifted goals by Watford and got battered by Villa. To me I am still very unconvinced by what I see on the pitch and believe Bielsa with players actually available would have done just as well.
I'll get behind Marsch but I ain't one of these pretending he is some sort of messiah who has turned it round, we've had a favourable run of games with a couple of players back and quite a bit of luck we could just have as easily have dropped 5 points vs Norwich and Wolves then the narrative would be very different. He has got us a bit more solid and we definitely don't look like a free hit at corners anymore but going forward it all looks average and panicked
FWIW, he's more a "arm round shoulder" kind of manager/coach, thats for sure. He's American and has the traits we are familiar with (verging on the over-emotional, quite the opposite to Bielsa, which at this point in the season and where we are, is a bit of a double-edged sword, you get the emotional connection from players, but you risk losing objectivity in exchange, not necessarily a good swap, we will see).
Agree with Joel about the luck we have had, and the poor opposition. That isn't the case for the upcoming games, Palace, City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Brighton, Brentford, there are no "easy" games in the PL (unless you count Watford!) and there certainly aren't in that little crop. The positivity coming from the recent wins will help, as will the return of any of those injured players, but the cohesiveness of those who play is crucial, something Bielsa achieved in spades for all but the last half season, and which Marsch currently hasn't, at least to the same extent.
Be very interesting to see how we cope with Palace, Veira is producing good results and a style of play which is very much Bielsa-like, and whilst he has some "names" he's also got the likes of Olise as a relative newcomer who is simply superb on either foot and just about anywhere on the pitch, VERY dangerous. If we can come away with a draw at Palace and at home to City, that will help cement the belief in the team that was severely damaged by the hammerings we got just before Bielsa was replaced.
As the kids like to say "the S*&t's about to get real".
I think CP will be a very, very tough match up for us. doesn't get any easier after that. will definitely know if he's the real deal after that run of games.
Bielsa's training methods were fine we were just hit with injuries at the wrong time which is why we have struggled and don't forget our board did feck all to help as well - no way were we ever going to be relegation fodder with a fully fit squad to choose from under Bielsa.
If we'd had a fit Bamford, Phillips and dare I say it Cooper for most of the season (our spine of the team) I doubt relegation would even be in our thoughts, and bielsa would still be here.