The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Fri 17 Aug)

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ellandback said:
Who are Bielsa's assistants?

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Pablo Quiroga - assistant Quiroga, a fellow Argentinian who was born near Buenos Aires, has been a long-time ally of Bielsa’s in club football.

Having worked with him first with Chile’s national team, he was part of Bielsa’s staff at Athletic Bilbao, Marseille and Lille and a guaranteed inclusion in his corp at Leeds United. Now 36, Quiroga started out as a PE teacher and had only minor experience in amateur football before Bielsa first enlisted him as his “virtual blackboard”, to quote one South American journalist. His talent is in video analysis.



Diego Reyes - assistant Chilean Reyes, 37, is an out-and-out coach and the man who took the initial training sessions at Lille after Bielsa’s appointment as manager. The pair have been together since 2008 when Bielsa drafted him into the fold with Chile and he is arguably Bielsa’s most trusted lieutenant.

The story went that an unknown Reyes turned up at the complex where Chile were training and asked for work. Bielsa gave him video clips to edit and their relationship developed quickly to the point where Reyes became part of the Argentinian’s ‘iron circle’ of assistants. He has followed the 63-year-old to every job since.



Diego Flores - assistant A technical coach who has been on the scene for a considerably shorter time than Quiroga and Reyes.

Flores, also 37, linked up with Bielsa for the first time at Marseille after leaving Argentina to study in Ireland. Bielsa kept him in tow when he took the head coach’s position at Lille and brought him to England too.



Carlos Corberan - first team coach/development coach Very prominent in Bielsa’s technical area throughout the summer and since the start of the season. Corberan, who was recruited to coach Leeds’ Under-23s last season, has been moulded into something of a go-between at Thorp Arch.

United say he is “integral to the first-team set-up” - as proven by the fact that he has been present at every game and involved in Bielsa’s training sessions - but will retain “special responsibility for creating a pathway for the Under-23s and Under-18s, and ensuring consistency of football philosophy”.

Corberan gained managerial experience in Cyprus and Middle East but is better known in his homeland of Spain for a long stint as Villarreal’s number two. He has the advantage of being able to speak Spanish and English.



Salim Lamrani - translator Lamrani is not, or was not, a football man by trade. A multilingual university lecturer specialising in Iberian and Latin American Studies, he has written at length about relations between Cuba and the United States and was described in one newspaper as being “one of France’s best connoisseurs on Cuba”.

He appeared alongside Bielsa at Lille, accompanying the Argentinian to every press conference and working as his translator.

Lamrani is a lifelong Marseille supporter and took a keen interest in Bielsa’s work during his time as head coach there, writing once how Bielsa had “offered the French championship the most beautiful football of the last 20 years.”

The pair met in South America while Lamrani was lecturing and Bielsa invited the Frenchman to join him at Lille where he provided translation for both Bielsa and some of the players. Bielsa has a certain way with the media, refusing all one-on-one interviews in the belief that no individual writer deserves to hear more from him than any other. He is in the process of learning English but Lamrani, on Bielsa’s first appointment in this country, has had the job of getting his message across, sitting with him at all of his pre-match and post-match press conferences.



Marcos Abad - goalkeeping coach Drafted in after the appointment of Thomas Christiansen, replacing Darryl Flahavan, and survived the culls of staff which followed the sackings of Christiansen and Paul Heckingbottom.

Abad never played professionally but he has a UEFA Pro licence and was goalkeeping coach for Elche and Middlesbrough - on both occasions as part of a team which included Leeds’ director of football Victor Orta - before arriving at Elland Road.



Benoit Delaval - fitness coach Delaval is a French fitness coach who evidently impressed Bielsa during the Argentinian’s short and torrid spell as Lille’s boss. Delaval’s history with Lille went back much further - 12 years back, to 2006 - and he has been working in professional football throughout his career having studied sports science in Clairefontaine, France’s national football centre.

He stayed on at Lille after Bielsa’s dismissal last December but came to Leeds in the summer after Bielsa decided not to enlist his long-standing fitness expert, Gabriel Macaya. According to Delaval’s LinkedIn profile, he earned a UEFA A licence in 2011.



Ruben Crespo - fitness coach Another fitness coach who came to Leeds from Hull City in June. He was Hull’s head of fitness for 18 months having originally joined the club in 2016. His CV shows prior stints in Thailand and Russia, where he worked for Torpedo Avarmir.

He grew up and studied in Spain at universities in La Coruna and Vigo. Jorge García Valera - analyst Valera is a Spanish analyst whose last job was at Atletico Madrid. Levante had employed him previously. He is another new addition to the backroom team.
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Thanks for reminding us fans,We tend to forget the background staff,and the important job they are doing, as without them Marcello would find it a lot more difficult to do his job,this is another well done to Radz & Orta bringing in the complete set up in. <applause>
This Club is going places, places we havn't seen in 20-30 years.
 
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leeds60 said:
Good Morning to the most informative writer around it is always a pleasure reading you notes Matt and I am writing this from a sunny Bardsey
I never thought I would ever say this but can Pontus settle into Bielsas style of play I still prefer him to Berardi who is too head strong for me .Rumour now says Foyth will be signed before the end of the loan window along with Madison.I see that Huth was also in Leeds yesterdayI can't see him in this system either
Looks like Snoddy will rejoin Villa who are desperate to get rid of McContract who is on 45k a week to stay at home! No we don't want him back thank you
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Morning Mike, and thank you for your praise.

Huth would be a great signing. Surprised that the Leeds journo's Messrs Hay, Pope and Sobot have not jumped all over that - perhaps they are keeping tight lipped for a reason?

Coincidentally, he was at the very bar that Vydra went to when he was spotted.

Is 6m a gamble for Maddison?

Jansson seemed to be off the pace a little bit on Tuesday night.
 
Doc said:
Lots of paper talk but Maddison is up against Villa and WBA both on parachute money. Yes Villa need to balance the books but expect Grealish to go out on loan, so lets see.

Another player touted is Liverpool's Marko Grujic as Klopp spoke to Leeds about him. Grujic has turned down Cardiff and WBA

So now it seems 2 Argentian players at Spurs?

Another biggy started yesterday when it was revealed a move to Trabsonspoor fell through and Iranian International Morteza Pouraliganji came on the radar. This is a player Brighton tried to sign last season for £13m, but he's now a freebie and thinks Leeds may be the place under Bielsa. He played in every game of the recent WC?

Bielsa said last night there may be one or two loans coming in but not sure when or if they happen?

Stop worrying about getting tired and listen to what Bielsa says about high impact football. 'When its done properly a player can run his heart out for 50 games per season. Done properly it means playing well and when a player plays well there is no fatigue because fatigue is in the head and a state of mind. If you lose you are exhausted after the game but if you win you feel fresh' Hey he knows what hes doing and its still early in the season and we have half a dozen fresh faces on the bench getting fitter to play his style by the week.

As far as Preston goes and the 4 big games in 10 days: bet nobody says we have only played bottom feeders so far <laugh>
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The Pouraliganji deal fell through for Leeds I'm afraid

He was going to Trabsonspoor.

Then Leeds came knocking.

Then Trabsonspoor upped their interest, and made the player certain promises - and it looks like he's off to Turkey.
 
1964white said:
Good morning Matt & everyone

Once again Bielsa thinking outside the box.

How many other managers reveal their line-up 48 hours prior to a game?

We have a really tough schedule until the end of August then the majortity of our players can take in a short-break during the international week in early September just like myself with my busy workload/social life :-D
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Morning Leon, lets hope we can get a couple of decent loanee's to make up the numbers.
 
southernwhite said:
Morning everyone
Thirty hours fifteen minutes to go :emoticon-0158-time:
Maddison would be hell of a capture if we could get him,don't know anything about Pouraliganji or Grujic, but if Bielsa wants to look at them they must be good,isn't it nice that were no longer looking at seria B or lower,what a transformation at Elland Rd.
:1980_boogie_down:
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Morning SW, Pouraliganji or Grujic would improve our team dramatically
 
ristac said:
Morning all...

I love having a coach/manager who puts his best team out, tells them you know what you need to do and then let’s the opposition worry about it. We don’t need to change our style, let others worry, on paper Rotherham will need 13 players to shackle us.

In regards to fitness, you’d hope Rotherham would be less of a test, if we have more possession we waste less energy, we’ll only tire if we’re constantly pressuring them.
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Morning ristac, it would certainly be nice to score 4 or 5 past a local rival
 
Eireleeds1 said:
Good morning John Boy, good morning Mary Ellen. After many years isnt it great to have pressers worth listening to. Weve had years of the same stupid soundbites from managers talking for a half hour and saying noting. All Bielsas are innovative and well worth a listen
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Morning Eire
 
Gessa said:
Morning Matt, and all

We have our 4th game coming up, no way should young fit sports men be tired, when you play the way we do, as Wenger did with Arsenal, training is all about certain fitness levels and working on systems and set plays, not running yourself into the ground in 5a side. If a player is carrying a knock that's different, but after the first 2 games, all these players deserve their place. I'm pretty certain M B will know if a player is tiring and will do what is required, like he did with Klich in the first 2 games.

These teams will mostly have the same schedule, I'm sure the Preston game we'll see changes.

Know nothing about the Spurs lad.

MacAnthony has a knack of bringing Leeds into it everytime he has a player for sale, not sure if he thinks it puts the price up.
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Morning Gessa, just like Foyth, Amos is very highly regarded by Pochetino.

Amos is a mirror image of Phillips.
 
Doc said:
Stop worrying about getting tired and listen to what Bielsa says about high impact football. 'When its done properly a player can run his heart out for 50 games per season. Done properly it means playing well and when a player plays well there is no fatigue because fatigue is in the head and a state of mind. If you lose you are exhausted after the game but if you win you feel fresh' Hey he knows what hes doing and its still early in the season and we have half a dozen fresh faces on the bench getting fitter to play his style by the week.
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I dont think people are worried by what they see... they are flagging concerns raised that bielsa’s teams have a rep for flagging late in the season. If done properly they can last 50 games a season, then it implies in the past he hasn’t always done it properly. Let’s hope he’s learnt.

The point about mental fatigue is true to a point, but there are physical aspects to it to. There’s a reason why most training programs recommend one light/rest week in 4.

I believe they butchered them in pre-season to get them in tip top shape -which should serve as a great base - and have reigned it in now... but they need to take rest periods during natural breaks in the season... internationals etc, and to be periodically rested in between. Some will need it more than others, but you can’t peak for 40 weeks in any sport.

I’m sure they’re professional enough to know their onions on all this... I’m hardly losing sleep... quite the opposite I’m belted up and enjoying the ride... but the concerns are understandable
 
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2020VisionofLeeds said:
I love the way he announces his line ups in advance

It’s almost like he thinks it’s the other team that needs to worry about Leeds and we can just get on with playing as we want to <ok>
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Agree... no secret squirrel crap. You know what’s coming chaps... but can you stop it? Derby had a plan apparently.

As mike Tyson once said... everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
 
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This makes interesting reading, our assists to date so far.

Pablo has played one less as well I believe?

Hernandez - 3
Saiz - 1
Alioski - 1
Klich - 1
Douglas - 1
 
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