Good Morning. It's Wednesday 13th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Marsch rips into Bielsa Leeds fans were left shell shocked following a live radio Interview where Jesse Marsch ripped into his predecessor, Marcelo Bielsa. He was a guest on the talkSPORT Breakfast show yesterday with Ally McCoist, Natalie Sawyer and Darren Bent. Marsch revealed that when he arrived at Elland Road, the stress levels were incredibly high, and he spent the first few days building up the player's confidence. It was when the gaffer was asked how near he was to having a full squad to pick from that listener's really were taken aback. The American point-blank linked the Elland Road injury crisis with Bielsa's training methodologies, in particular over-training. He claimed that in some games, the players had reached maximum output by the 15th minute, and that shouldn't be the case. "The injury issues had a lot to do with the training methodologies, the players were over-trained. That led them to being physically, mentally, psychologically and emotionally in a difficult place to recover from week-to-week and game-to-game. I have a very specific methodology in the way I work and I've had a reputation for having high running data in the way we play, but also having healthy, fit and strong players so we can meet the demands we want. So, we tried to put that into place to help the players, I think that has helped a lot". "The one with Patrick I felt terrible about because the responsibility of a coach to take care of players and to make sure you're not injuring them and putting them in harms way In the end, it didn't go the way I wanted with Patrick and I always feel like it is my responsibility to get that right. But for the most part, we are getting healthy and strong with almost the entire group. The other part of that is the playing style. Marcelo had such strong man-to-man demands and trying to rip apart three-and-a-half years of work structured exactly to do that, to now transitioning into what I want to do moving forward has been challenging for the players to adapt to". "From afar, you could see it on their faces and you could see in the 15th minute of some of those games that they were already at the maximum, and that shouldn't be the case. I know there were a lot of games where the guys had to play over and over again because of injuries, but I find that in this sport, you have to have a fit team. But the more your team is fit, healthy and performing at a high level, that is how you create success. Again, I have worked very carefully through methodologies of how we train, how we play, how everything fits together to make sure that we have a healthy group that is at top fitness and form so we can compete for as many points as possible". Former player, now pundit Darren Bent was quick to Praise Marsch for his honesty following the interview "He talks really well, and honest; when he spoke about the players fatigue and stuff, really honest". please log in to view this image Was Marsch right to criticise Bielsa Social media lit up following Jesse Marsch's interview on talkSPORT yesterday morning. The American was heavily criticised by some sections of the Elland Road faithful for throwing Marcelo Bielsa under the bus, whilst other fans praised the 48yo for his honesty and openness of the situation. Marcelo Bielsa will always be a legend in West Yorkshire. What he achieved during his three and a half year tenure was truly remarkable, and he will long be remembered with fondness and admiration. Recently, Citeh Manager Pep Guardiola paid Bielsa a glowing tribute whilst speaking to Telemundo Sports:- "Give Bielsa my Barcelona and see how much [more] he wins. Give me his Leeds side and we would be in the Championship." Was it fair for Marsch to link the injury crisis to over-training? Whilst we may never know whether the knock on effect Bielsa's strict training regime had on the players, we must remember that during previous campaigns, our injury list was no longer than our competitors! Searching through the archives, there was an interesting interview with the Argentine back in 2018. He was asked whether he was concerned that his training methods could lead to long term injury problems. Bielsa replied:- “We should analyse case by case,” “Actually, we are the team who has least injuries in the Championship. If we take some parameters, if we take into account the number of players used, we are a team with few injuries.” please log in to view this image Leeds eye Forest Midfielder Leeds have been monitoring the progress of Nottingham Forest midfielder Brennan Johnson according to freelance journalist Pete O'Rourke. Johnson, 20, has caught the eye of several top flight clubs, having netted 14 goals and seven assists from 39 Championship games so far this season. The 20-year-old first caught the eye of the Leeds scouts whilst playing alongside Robbie Gotts, (both on loan) at Lincoln City. Unfortunately for Leeds, their career's went in different directions. Whilst Johnson flourished, Gotts found himself down in the pecking order, and was later sold to Barrow following an equally unsuccessful loan move at Salford. Johnson has fifteen months left on his contract, and is desperate to play top flight football. Forest find themselves 4th in the Championship, and are the form team in the division with six back to back wins. Should they win promotion, the Welsh International may be tempted to put pen to paper. Johnson is versatile. He has played every position in midfield, and up top for Forest this season, and according to O'Rourke, won't interfere with Leeds pursuit of Brenden Aaronson. please log in to view this image
Nothing shattering in that interview but Im surprised he went public with it so soon into his tenure. The Bielsa disciples are not going to be happy
Nothing new there. Lots on here being saying the same regarding training. Interestingly, on tactics, Schmeichel has said on defending set pieces, one of our previous weak points, Leicester have defended 24 without conceding: "Football goes in waves of what works, it was zonal, then man marking and a hybrid. "We hadn’t had much success with any one of them, but we've gone with a man marking plan which seems to be working."
Brennan Johnson would be my no.1 transfer target this summer and a direct replacement for Raphinha if he leaves. He is an amazing prospect.
Yeh, he's a player. Not exactly a secret unfortuntely so will be no shortage of suitors... especially if forest don't go up
interesting comments from Marsch in that interview also on an ego-free first team squad but egos in the 23s
So Matt... the really big question from all this.... How much did you tip Jesse to sort out your morning thread for you today... and (as we've established) endless repeat clickbait opportunities
Eire it's not about Bielsa disciples, it's about showing a bit more respect to a man who lets be honest got a team with average championship players to the Premier and even had the majority of those players playing in a very good first season back. When the side were winning matches I don't recall hearing too much about player fatigue or over training. Clough did the same to Revie and the players and maybe if he'd had lowered his ego a bit we'd have done well under Clough. I appreciate we all need to move on from Bielsa, but he will IMO be up in our top three managers. The question should be asked, would Jessie have got us up from the Championsip. We will never know, but worth thinking about. Oh just to put the record straight, I'm not a Bielsa follower or disciple because I support the team and club, but I do have a lot of respect for the man. Jessie has big boots to fill, but it is a bit of a worry that he is already getting a bit of flak after only so few games in.
But there's a big difference in a balanced view of Bielsa which thankfully most have. Nobody's tactics are perfect but some of the pro and anti Bielsa stuff Ive seen is way over the top. He turned the club around unbelievably and should always be respected for that. One thing I don't understand was looking back to the City game l last year when Cooper was red carded, the team defended superbly and hit them with the late Dallas winner. I remember Bielsa saying something to the effect that it was the players doing and he couldn't take credit for a tactical change. Why didn't we adopt those tactics in the games we got the battering in. The players proved they could do it and Bielsa would still be in a job today. I don't understand it
I suppose the easy answer is that we aren't a machine and you can't compare our first season back to this season because of the injuries. I know everyones sick of hearing about the injuries, but that's a fact, no injuries and we may have been a bit higher in the table, instead of fighting relegation.
Morning all Bloody annoys me know end, after all he's not saying anything that all of us don't already know, just a different type of personality to Bielsa, he's open, and let's people know what he thinks, in other words, what you see is what you get. I personally think he was right to mention the over training/physically & mentally, to the press, this could take a hell of a lot of pressure off the players, who were being branded (on here as well) as lazy sick notes or just plain past it. Being upfront about it might already showing dividends by showing it was just not all down to the players, The players are once again showing signs of a new found confidence and beginning to express themselves more, and by the pictures i have seen recently are a much happier bunch, all this will go a long way to improved performances on the pitch and more points. So i for one, say good on you Jesse, just keep up what your doing and let the results speak for themselves, and just turn the other cheek to the snipers.
That's the trouble wirh people who blindly follow their leader and never question his methods. All they do is end up making a cult of themselves.
Agree with @Irishshako on this. Listen, the state of the club before Bielsa came in should not be forgotten. It wasn't long before that we had dressing room revolts, refusing to play for the club. Players wanting away. No youth setup, no ****ing canteen. An owner implementing pie taxes on the most loyal of fans. We were a complete laughing stock. Nobody was enjoying it at the club. An absolute shambles. Results were at times embarrassing. It's not all about Bielsa though. Radz has to be given credit for trying to bring the fans and the club closer. Lots of things happening behind the scenes, buying the ground back, implementing a clear plan for moving forward. Him and Orta were intrinsic to bringing Bielsa in. What Bielsa did that first pre-season was amazing. I don't think any of us will forget the feeling after his first league game at Stoke where we saw Bielsaball for the first time. All of a sudden there was a strange feeling amongst fans, one we hadn't felt for a while. We were proud of the team and we were filled with hope. Little snippets started emerging about players forced to pick up rubbish around the training ground, youth players integrated with first team training, a clear system that everyone learnt. More importantly a squad that were on the same page, all pulling together in the same direction for the first time in years. A team spirit not seen since the league 1 days. That was all Bielsa, he instilled a belief in the players and we ALL reaped the rewards. In a nutshell Bielsa was the final piece of Radz's jigsaw, he completed the puzzle that so many had failed to finish. Bielsa brought EVERYONE together and that was a huge turnaround for our club that had been divided for so long. That should never be underestimated or forgotten. Its no coincidence that since his departure there have been more divisions at the club and among the fan base than there have been whilst he was here. In the end, Bielsa's self confessed stubbornness was again his undoing at a club. It was increasingly difficult to stand by a man respected by everyone given the results we and he painfully endured. After all, the club is essentially the most important thing for us fans and if that came at the expense of Bielsa then so be it. The results since he left kind of justifies the clubs decision to change coach. Guessing what Bielsa would have done in the same fixture really doesn't help anyone and is pretty pointless exercise. It is what it is, we have Marsch now and we should all get behind him. After all, if he succeeds, we all get to enjoy it. Whether Marsch 'tore into' Bielsa is really the press finding a story where there isn't one. It's clear Marsch has massive respect for his predecessor. We can't expect him to come in and make no changes whatsoever and he was just answering a question on what he has changed in training. One thing is for certain, this 'group of amazing young men' as Marsch calls them, only became 'amazing' under the tutelage of the Argentinian coach who should be thanked eternally for the part he played in turning this club around in more ways than what we just saw on the field.
At the end Natalie says she would like to thank Leeds Utd for setting the interview up. Does anybody think the hierarchy wanted a bit of Bielsa bashing?
It keeps being mentioned about the injuries, and how things would have improved once Bielsa got the players back, but surely now it’s been established, that it was Bielsa’s training methods that were part of the problem, the question is would we have EVER got a fully fit team? as Bielsa wouldn’t change a thing so I can only see the problem getting worse, and we would go into freefall, which by the way seemed to be happening. Don’t get me wrong I to think of Bielsa as one of the top three managers/coach's that we have ever had and his methods gave us two great seasons which I with everybody else are very thankful for, but by pushing the players to the absolute limit over those three seasons they literally physically & mentally could not take any more, he needed to realise this and change, but we already know the possibility of that. Sorry if that’s upset a few, but just giving my opinion on this great forum.
Nothing wrong with stating things as the new coach saw them. This squad has looked knackered all season. Who in his right mind would play murder ball on a thursday and leave all the energy on the training ground. Switching the whole team around because of one player missing. Keeping the charge of the light brigade tactics against top six sides was insane. Bielsa has never won anything at top club level and never will. He was a good coach for the championship which is his level. He was also caught cheating and got the club fined. Hecshould never have allowed that walk in goal. I was with Pontus that day and then he got sold over nothing. Pablo got the cold shoulder too again over nothing. I had to listen to Bielsas weird ramblings so why should jessie not have his turn. All this talk of a statue needs to stop because dyche at Burnley does not have one and he has achieved more in the Prem than Bielsa. For anyones feelings i have hurt i sincerely and utterly do not give a damn. Oh and here's another point of view did Bielsa just get lucky with the players he had?. Was it the character of these guys that made it all possible. One thing i do know they will be a happier bunch now.
