Jesse Marsch doubles down on Bielsa claim he was criticised for early in Leeds United tenure

Jesse Marsch had to duck for cover and withstand the flak earlier this year when he unsuspectingly suggested that the Leeds squad he inherited had been over-trained under his predecessor.

Marcelo Bielsa’s methods were demanding, however until results became harder to come by, it was a badge of honour that his Leeds team would play through anything and everything.

Stuart Dallas was commended on a number of occasions by the Argentine for his willingness and dedication to the cause when playing with small injuries throughout Bielsa’s tenure.

As the revered manager’s time at Elland Road drew to an end which many deemed premature at the time, Leeds were in dire straits, conceding goals hand over fist and creating very little of substance at the other end.

This was partly to do with the fact Bielsa’s squad had been decimated, somewhat unfortunately, by several simultaneous injuries to key first-team players.

Debate raged surrounding the cause, with Bielsa’s training methods blamed by some, while others regarded the sheer number of knocks, sprains and tears as rotten luck.

Upon arriving in late February, Marsch’s first task was to revitalise and reinvigorate a group which had been flagging.

During an interview roughly a month into his post, Marsch intimated that Bielsa’s methods had in some way contributed to the issues Leeds were still facing.

"The injury issues had a lot to do with the training methodologies, the players were over-trained,” he said in April.

"That led them to being physically, mentally, psychologically and emotionally in a difficult place to recover from week-to-week and game-to-game.”

During his most press conference, Marsch briefly re-opened the overtraining debate.

"Last year when I came, I got killed for it by all of you guys [the press], about Marcelo overtraining, but in my experiences, the reality was that the team was done, physically, emotionally, everything,” he said.

“The first thing I had to do was try to mould them in my vision, What I thought they needed, how they needed to come out of that and then with a long-term focus on how to modify them to be the types of athletes I think that we need for them to perform the football that we want to play.”

Marsch’s influence has changed the way in which Leeds play, namely with less width, greater centrality and a hunting-in-packs approach when out of possession.

That said, Bielsa’s training methods, while controversial or at odds with some, did provide Marsch with a squad tailormade for energetic, high-pressing football

After just three Premier League matches, it remains too early to draw a conclusive verdict on whether Marsch’s style has had a material impact on results, but signs are promising.