Leeds United's Diego Llorente lifts lid on major difference between Premier League and La Liga

Llorente, who joined the club around 18 months ago from La Liga outfit Real Sociedad, is enjoying his first full campaign in England in front of fans after Covid restrictions were lifted earlier this year.

The Spain international suffered with a number of injuries in his debut season and was again hampered at the start of the 2021/22 term by two separate knocks.

He has, though, been able to feature in the Whites' last nine league outings in a row in what feels like his first proper run in Bielsa's line-up on a consistent week-to-week basis.

"From a physical point of view, it is completely different," Llorente said of the differences between the Premier League and La Liga.

"La Liga is a more practical competition, and teams don't make a big effort in each game, sometimes teams stay very closed. In the Premier League there can be big spaces and in some minutes the match can be crazy.

"You go forward, go back, go forward, go back... so you have to stay fit and you have to have power and resistance to do all this effort.

"When you are at a good level of fitness, you can do this, but if you don't stay at that level and have a good preparation you can try to put in that effort but you can get injured."

Asked about Bielsa as a manager, Llorente added: "For me, never have I had this type of coach. We train in a very specific way and there is always a specific way to play in the game.

"At my other clubs, we trained in different ways but here I am surprised because you have to know how to help the team in each minute of the game.

"Even if you don't have the ball, you need to know how you can help the team. For example, if they lose the ball or something like that. He trains every aspect like that in training, it's very tactical and very demanding, because he knows one of the strengths of this team is the power and physical point of view, so we train a lot on these things."