Trampoline sprints and 1 km endurance tests: inside Leeds’ ‘relentless’ boot camp
Has refreshed training and overseen improvements at Thorp Arch – but his infamous ‘murderball’ sessions remain
IHe is the oldest manager in the Premier League but moves with times in the way Ferguson did
n the canteen at Leeds United’s newly refurbished training ground at Thorp Arch, Marcelo Bielsa’s squad have been playing shuffleboard between their highintensity sessions. There is also an element of competitiveness at table tennis, but this is generally the time to unwind during the hardest work of the season.
One first-team player describes this summer as the toughest under Bielsa, who has had a pre-season to work with his squad compared to the shortened summer of Project Restart when football resumed during the pandemic.
After finishing in the top half on their return to the Premier League, Bielsa has taken steps to avoid any second-season syndrome by making changes in pre-season. For El Loco, this has been out of necessity. The contract he signed at Elland Road this week makes his stay at Leeds the longest of his career in club management, aside from coaching his beloved Newell’s Old Boys, and his plans for the new campaign included freshening up training.
Out went the drills from when Bielsa arrived. In came a timetable which included a session involving sprinting on a trampoline while passing the ball to team-mates, to test balance and agility.
“Given that this is the fourth year, the method that we use to work generates a tiredness,” Bielsa said. “If you do similar things for a long time, it’s natural that you get bored of it.
“In this pre-season, we tried to substitute all the exercises, the way in which we transmit them, the way in which we demonstrate how we do them, so that there was some sort of novelty. The objective is always the same: to try to make better what we think should be done.”
At 66, Bielsa is the oldest manager in the Premier League but he has shown an ability to move with the times in the way Sir Alex Ferguson did at Manchester United, who Leeds face today in their season opener at Old Trafford. Ferguson used change at Carrington to keep his squad fresh and the same is happening at Thorp Arch.
Bielsa has a pre-season test in which players are told to run a kilometre as fast as they can. They need to beat their target time, set individually by Bielsa, to play on. There is interval running where players compete against each other, an exercise Ian Poveda proudly declared himself the winner of earlier in the summer.
“Relentless, just constant,” is how Kalvin Phillips has described training. Mateusz Klich has spoken about Bielsa’s demands increasing because the base level of the squad’s fitness has improved in the three pre-seasons of the manager’s reign.
Players wear a Statsports vest to track their work and the amount of running. The kilometre count spikes during the famous “murderball” sessions of Bielsa, when the ball is constantly in play, there are no fouls, offsides or tactics. It is just a test of a physical capability.
Other drills are more tactical and based on movement on and off the ball. All of it has been underpinned by the facilities at Thorp Arch being improved under Bielsa’s instruction.
“Thorp Arch a year on has been improved and the focus is on some details that weren’t resolved,” he said. “Free spaces that previously couldn’t be used have been made into spaces that can be used with grass. One pitch has undersoil heating so that in the winter there aren’t any problems with regards to training due to snow and the weather. The facilities have been improved so that can happen for two further pitches in future and a path has been created for the machinery that does the work around the pitches, so that it doesn’t damage the pitches.
“There were a lot more minor details that make the options for work to be better. All of this is done with a lot of professionalism. The director of the club and those in charge of the construction have been impeccable in their work.”
The attention to detail with the players started when they arrived back from their holidays at the start of last month. Blood tests, oxygen tests and MRI scans to measure bone density were undertaken before the work started on the training pitch. Then for the new signings, such as Junior Firpo, comes the baptism of fire that Robin Koch had last year when he arrived.
“I wasn’t at his first murderball because I had just come back from a few days of holiday, because of the Euros,” Koch said. “But I know for myself after last year it is really hard, especially for the first time, so I can imagine how he felt in this moment and he said it was really, really hard.
“For every player I think it is the same, but he will adapt really fast and get used to murderball and the training sessions and the style of play, so I think that will be no problem.”