Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips are undoubtedly two of the players who benefitted most from Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United.
Having split opinion at Elland Road prior to Bielsa’s arrival, Phillips was able to establish himself as one of the best holding midfielders in England working under the Argentine.
Phillips became a mainstay of Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions side and also earned himself a move to Manchester City, where he will always be able to say he won a treble even if he didn’t play as much as he would’ve liked.
The 28-year-old could well have returned to Leeds in the summer had his former club won promotion, but is now at Ipswich Town.
Though clearly he has lost his way somewhat, it was his work under Bielsa that means the very floor of his ability is the Premier League, when at one stage it looked as though he wouldn’t ever be good enough to even play once at the top.
As for Bamford, meanwhile, the best season of his career came in the Premier League under Bielsa, which helped him win his one and only England cap, something that never looked possible.
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Bamford and Phillips both agree on Bielsa at Leeds
It is common knowledge just how much detail Bielsa went into preparation during his time at Leeds. Whether that was on a player’s weight, the opposition or statistics, no stone would be left unturned.
On the latest episode of the ‘My Mate’s A Footballer Podcast‘, Phillips was a guest of Bamford’s and one of the topics discussed was Bielsa’s time at Leeds.
Both were in strong agreement that Bielsa was undoubtedly the ‘harshest’ on Phillips, though that is only because of just how much he loved him.
Bielsa has watched every one of Phillips’ matches since leaving Leeds, and also picked him as the one football he would’ve allowed to marry his daughter.
With that in mind, Bamford and Phillips have both recalled stories of what made Bielsa so strict with the latter.
Phillips said: “We have got so many stories that we could sit here, talk about and laugh at…”
Bamford then responded: “You know what, I think he was the harshest on Kalv [Phillips agrees]. But that is because he knew what he could get Kalv to be, but he was definitely the harshest on him if you looked at the players. He had his moments where it would change week-to-week but generally Kalv was the one he would push and push.”
Phillips added: “I think what Pat is talking about is we would always have to lose loads of weight. When we first came in, Bielsa being South American and being obsessed with body composition, weight and fat, I was on the higher end of the team, if not the highest.
“We had a pre-season where, I’m not even joking, for three weeks I’d go home and literally just have a protein shake for my dinner and then come in the next day and keep having to lose weight. He was still like that until the last week he was there, he’d always push me to be on a certain weight target.
“I obviously respected it but then I knew that I can’t starve or dehydrate myself because eventually I am going to get injured, or I am going to stop performing.”
How has Phillips started at Ipswich Town?
Phillips has been surplus to requirements at Manchester City for some time now but his loan spell at West Ham last season did not go to plan.
As such, he made the move to newly promoted Ipswich in the summer and now seems to be at a club where the spotlight is off him somewhat.
Phillips has made a decent start to life at Portman Road and delivered his best performance yet in the 2-2 draw with Aston Villa on Sunday, playing a key role in Liam Delap’s opener.
It feels as though Phillips could really form a strong midfield partnership with Sam Morsy this season that will be crucial to their survival hopes.
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