19/20 Team v 22/23 Team

If our Championship winning squad of three years ago were to play a Leeds line up of last season, who would come out triumphant?

On paper, the current crop of wage thieves should make easy work of Bielsa's young guns, but having just watched re-runs of our title winning campaign, I'm not so sure.

 

19/20 team would win. But if Bielsa was managing this seasons team we might have survived

 

I was stunned at how often Alioski would just pop out of nowhere

 

Compare alioskis effect around the dressing room too to the likes of McKennie. We always knew Pablo would be irreplaceable but we didn’t see to try

 

Forshaw, Ayling, Bamford, Cooper and Dallas all fooked now…… hence relegation because these players haven’t been upgraded/replaced all now over 30yo too whereas 3 seasons ago all their prime

 

Look at some of the goals we score in that video, and how good we were.

We are nowhere near that quality now.

 

Only medal KP has actually “won”

 

Who wins this:-

Casilla
Ayling
Alioski
White
Cooper
Phillips
Costa
Klich
Bamford
Hernandez
Harrison

Coach -: J Marsch


v

Meslier
Kristensen
Firpo
Koch
Wober
Adams
Summerville
Roca
Rodrigo
Sinisterra
Gnonto

Coach: M Bielsa

 

MB because they would be able to last a 90+ minute game unlike the not trained side under JM

 

They’ve just been eating a little better that’s all. Extra two meals a day probably

 

As a one off head to head the Bielsa team. Over a season in the PL a hard one to call, Sinisterra and Rodrigo get injured far too much, the Jesse team would rely too much on Pablo but the games he did play in, he’d win you points

 

Marsch wouldn't play pablo, too much emphasis on duracel bunnies in that position

 

For all everyone loves to talk about the happy days when we were superfit under Bielsa (which we undoubtedly were) whilst ignoring how we capitulated towards the end of that first season and how jiggered the players all were by his final season. Does anyone question why no other clubs go in for these Bielsa training methods? Are these other clubs all clueless like the Marsch/Gracia regimes. Or is there a reason why other sports scientists at other (let's be honest, more successful) clubs than us choose not to flog their horses to the same degree.

I don't have a horse in this race to the glue factory, I see the arguments for and against 'pushing the boundaries' as Rob Price called it. Just putting it out there, don't shoot the messenger

 

You should stop this they don't like it up em you know. It's like a cult thing where they follow to the death totally under the leaders power.

 

Because it’s acknowledged that the Bielsa model requires a turn around of players and some of the prima donnas wouldn’t accept the training regime. It doesn’t excuse Marsch relaxing the training to the point that in the words of Ayling, the team had nothing more to give after 45 minutes. And actually I think Pep and Poch demand similar fitness levels.

 

Exactly Kalvin Phillips was dropped from training with City's first team squad for being only 1kg or 2kg over his optimum weight. Put simply players need this type of discipline otherwise they end up like our lot and can't compete for the full 90 mins

 

One big difference in pep and Bielsa is pep has no problem dealing with a huge squad and keeping them all happy. Bielsa seemed to only want the tiniest of squads or maybe that’s all he was given. That cost him big time when injuries hit

 

That's not the case at all as Pep only has a small squad.

 

Well you're acknowledging it. Plenty don't.

Your example re Ayling is from more than 3 months after marsch left. Do Pep and Poch have the same burnout levels as Bielsa? Point is all premier league teams have serious weight targets and fitness regimes. Some are tougher than others and it's usually on the recommendations of the sports performance guys not the coach. Bielsa has his own ideas. I'm not saying they're wrong, just that they aren't universally adopted.