Leeds United's Tyler Roberts reveals Marcelo Bielsa's life-changing impact and buzz for first training session

Leeds United signed the attacker, from West Brom on the final day of the January 2018 transfer window.

The Baggies had sent him out on successful loan spells at Shrewsbury and Walsall, where his movement and finishing instinct had caught the eye.

Injury prevented a debut until August 2018, by which time Marcelo Bielsa had become head coach at Elland Road.

It crosses Roberts’ mind now and again that world reknowned former Argentine boss Bielsa has worked with legendary strikers like Gabriel Batistuta.

“He’s just our gaffer now,” said Roberts, on a video chat from his home.

And the gaffer has had an impact.

“He’s definitely made me a better player. He’s changed my lifestyle, on the pitch and off the pitch.

“I’m eating a lot cleaner now, I feel like I’m in a lot better shape, fitter than I was before. On the pitch I’d say my movement, my running off the ball has improved the most.

“He’s shown me a lot of things that I would never have picked up on had he not shown me.

“I know I’m still young and I can still learn but the amount of stuff I actually have learnt I didn’t think would be possible.”

Roberts has not been able to showcase his Bielsa-inspired improvements on as regular a basis as he would like, with injuries hampering his progress.

Yet this season’s frustrations appeared to be behind him when he scored two eye-catching goals in the 4-0 rout of Hull City in the penultimate game before football was suspended.

After the game Bielsa said he considered Roberts an option for the lone striker role, an attacking midfield position or playmaker duties.

“I was going through a little good spell and had got myself to full fitness,” he said.

“It’s come at a bad time but any time is a bad time for something like this, you’ve got to think of things other than yourself.”

Roberts, who was expected to go to the European Championships with Ryan Giggs’ Wales side this summer before its postponement, is still looking forward to potential involvement in the tournament when it is finally played.

And he admits there could be an upside to the delay.

“You have got to look at the positives, it could work in my favour where I have a whole season to show them what I am about,” he said.

But in the short term, the next football Roberts plays is likely to be at Thorp Arch when Bielsa’s troops are allowed to gather once more for training.

Leeds are awaiting government and EFL guidance but working towards a provisional start date of May 16.

Roberts thinks the fitness work the club have put the players through remotely will mean it won’t feel like the first day of pre-season and while he isn’t certain he could complete a murderball session just yet, he’s itching to get back under Bielsa’s charge.

“We’ve not really stopped to be honest, we’ve not had a week off, we’ve kept going, working by ourselves near enough every day - we’ve had days off here and there - so I don’t think we’ll be at the stage we’d be at for the first day of pre-season,” he said.

“We’re still in good shape.

“We have two sessions a week that are pretty high intensity and do relate to training.

“It is pretty hard to imagine, but I think it will just be a massive buzz when you see all the boys and we are finally all together and we can walk out off the training ground and on the pitch and are about to do a proper football session.

“It will be a massive buzz for everybody.”