A Marcelo Bielsa pre-season and how he creates a band of brothers
Leeds are hoping to confirm the appointment of the Argentine in the coming days
BY JOE MEWIS
19:00, 13 JUN 2018UPDATED19:11, 13 JUN 2018
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Bielsa leaves no stone unturned
Leeds United are reportedly nearing a deal with Marcelo Bielsa which will the Argentinian become the clubs new manager.
The widely-respected 62-year-old would replace Paul Heckingbottom in the Elland Road dugout, after the former Barnsley boss was relived off his duties on June 1.
With the likes of Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino both hailing the former Argentina and Chile boss as huge influences on their respective careers, the appointment would be a huge statement of intent from the Championship side, who have also drawn up an ambitious list of transfer targets.
Leeds United will likely step up these transfers negotiations once the new manager is on board, but should Bielsa indeed get the nod then there will be big changes at the club.
Bielsa is legendary for his meticulous preparation and the Leeds United squad will undergo a very different pre-season under the Argentine.
We've had a look back at how Bielsa has previously approached his pre-season campaigns to see what Leeds could be in store for later this month.
An early return
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Bielsa reportedly wants his side back a week early
Leeds United's pre-season was scheduled to begin on Monday, June 25 with the playing squad returning to Thorp Arch for 'three weeks of intense training', according to the club's official website. And that was before the Bielsa speculation began.
But reports suggest that should Bielsa land the job then he will expect his players back this Monday - a week earlier than scheduled in order to get going early under the new manager, with a steep learning curve awaiting the Leeds squad.
"The first two days were tests and after that it was hardcore," said Lille winger Anwar El Ghazi told the BBC about Bielsa's time at at the French side. "We trained at 10am and second training was 6:30pm."
The 62-year-old demands extremely high levels of fitness from his players, so the extra week could be vital.
No going home
During his tenure at Lille, Bielsa demanded that the club built 20 stripped-down, back-to-basics bungalows at their Domaine de Luchin training complex for the players to stay in.
Marcelo Bielsa attends the friendly Marseille vs Chievo Verona on August 2, 2014 in Le Pontet alongside Jan Van Winckel
Bielsa makes huge demands of his players(Image: BERTRAND LANGLOIS/AFP/Getty Images)
"We eat here, we sleep here and we do everything here," El Ghazi continued.
"They're small bungalows, just a bedroom, air conditioning and electricity, that's all. If you want to take a shower you go to the changing room and we have a room with Playstation and table tennis.
"The coach said we had to be a family together and when you're eating together, sleeping next door to each other, you become a family. We are like brothers now."
Given the infrastructure at Thorp Arch, where every piece of spare land has been sold off to housing developers over the past decade and the club's desire to leave in the future, this is not a realistic proposition this summer, but who knows what his plans for next summer are?
Intense video study
The tales of Bielsa's fondness for video analysis are part of the Argentine's folklore.
One Christmas he was asked how he would spend the break, answering that he would do two hours of exercise and then spend 14 hours watching videos. He can apparently watch two games at a time, so that's a lot of information.
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Bielsa puts in countless hours of preparation
And he expects his players to also go the extra yard, so the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Kemar Roofe and Liam Cooper will have to set aside plenty of time to spend in front of the telly, where the conclusion to this year's Love Island will have to wait.
Manchester City's Benjamin Mendy played under Bielsa at Marseille and gave an insight in Bielsa's demands of him - and some of the mind games he plays in order to get the most out of his squad.
"He made me devour videos like never before," the left-back told Onze Mondial.
"To begin with he put me in front of the videos and I'd fall asleep. But he was happy! I was shocked.
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Benjamin Mendy says Bielsa is 'too good'
"After a while I stopped sleeping and told myself 'go on, I'll watch two minutes of this thing after all.'
"After that he talked to me, I talked to him and we'd go over moves together. He told me, 'see, that's why I let you sleep. You slept, you slept, you slept but the day you decided to watch you got interested on your own. If I'd pushed you to watch you wouldn't have been interested'... Marcelo is just too good."
The under-23s won't be ignored
Bielsa was appointed by Lille shortly after the 2016-17 season finished and called a special post-season training for the club's younger players, watching the action with his notebook and pen.
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The youngsters will not be ignored at Thorp Arch
From the moment his appointment was confirmed the French side's various youth teams all switched to a back-three to ready themselves for the tactical switch was about to be introduced.
Bielsa will want his side up for pre-season friendlies
Forest Green's The New Lawn will be the venue for Bielsa's first game, should he land the job. A far cry from some of the stadiums in which the veteran has previously managed, but if you go by Lille's pre-season results from last season, the team should be up for the challenge.
French side Reims and Rennes plus Italian outfit Atalanta were some of Lille's opponents, with Bielsa's side winning three, drawing one and losing one of their five pre-season friendlies.
Bielsa set up his side in either a 3-3-3-1 or 4-2-3-1, with one style of play dominating all five matches: pressing. Get ready to hear that word a lot.
Bielsa's dealings with the media
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Bielsa during his first press conference at Lille(Image: DENIS CHARLET/AFP/Getty Images)
Before this busy summer gets underway Bielsa will meet the media for the first-time.
As in France, it is likely he will need a translator, at least in these first few months. But the challenge facing him at Lille, where he took over at an under-performing mid-table side, does offer some similarities with the job at Leeds.
Leeds United transfer news LIVE: Updates on Marcelo Bielsa as Neil Redfearn lands Liverpool Ladies top job
“I arrive at LOSC with plenty of enthusiasm,†he said at his unveiling. “The expectations placed on us are not small.â€
And they won't be small at Leeds United either.
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