Rob Price has explained how Leeds United went back to the Marcelo Bielsa days during the off-season to improve the squad’s fitness levels.
Price was speaking on the latest episode of the Official Leeds United Podcast, where discussed what the club did to get fitness back up to scratch after a notable drop-off last season.
Leeds had been renowned for being the fittest team in the country during the days of Bielsa but following his departure, standards appeared to slip.
This was then effectively confirmed in an interview with Luke Ayling after Leeds’ 3-1 defeat at West Ham United in May, which left them needing a miracle for survival heading into the final day.
Ayling admitted – that for whatever reason – Leeds were just unable to ‘go again’ in the second half of matches, which was reflected in some of the dismal results they suffered in the final couple of months of that season.
Price shares what Leeds did to improve fitness
With those comments in mind, head of medicine and performance Price, alongside his team, drew up specific programmes for all the players to adhere to in order to return to Thorp Arch in top condition for pre-season.
While there has been a huge overhaul in the squad since then, Price believes that strategy has worked and is impressed with the job Daniel Farke and his staff have done to carry that on.
He said: “They’re good. Even the players have said it, their general fitness levels last season dropped off. We were trying to push that from the backroom staff but ultimately a lot of the training comes down to what the coach wants to do in those sessions. We decided over the summer, before we knew who’d be the new manager, that we were going to give the lads a programme that meant that whoever was coming in to take them, they would be at a really good level.
“We gave the players around 10 days off after the last game against Tottenham and then they were sent programmes. Almost like in the Covid era, they had to screenshot every day and send in what they were doing.
“We did really specific programmes that went almost back to the Bielsa days because we know what levels they were at. They came back into pre-season in a really good condition and Daniel and staff arrived, we only had a five-week pre-season this year which is a week less than we normally would, but because we’d done the background and the prep work before they were in a good condition when the coaching staff arrived.
“His staff and his fitness coach Chris (Domogalla) have been excellent. They know how he wants to play and what needs to be achieved to allow the players to do that. We’ve actually got a real synergy between the Leeds staff and Daniel’s staff, our principles and beliefs of what the fitness levels should be are at the same level. It’s nice to work in that environment.”
Leeds spend much more of matches this season in possession rather than chasing it, but there is no doubt fitness levels are much closer to what they once were.
Farke’s side have scored late goals in a number of games already this term and a lot of that will be down to their fitness levels, which they were simply unable to do last season.
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