'Speaking affectionately, there are days that you would kill him' - Kiko Casilla on Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa

Casilla believes the Argentine has improved all the players at Leeds since his arrival in the summer of 2018 and the hard work he puts them through is made worthwhile by the end result - attractive football and an intensity few other teams can match.

The Spaniard, who is currently serving an eight-game ban having been found guilty of using racist language against then-Charlton loanee Jonathan Leko - a charge he continues to deny - says Bielsa is still exerting a measure of control over the players' workload even during the coronavirus lockdown.

Speaking to Catalan newspaper L'Esportiu, Casilla joked: "I think if he could he would come from house to house to keep track.

"Each player has a weekly plan of what he has to do, with the GPS to pass the data of his activity. They also control the weight, they sent us material home and for example the goalkeepers have a kind of ramp to bounce the ball and that we can continue working on the subject of reflexes, ball blocks, falls."

He finds his head coach 'difficult to define' but admires the work ethic of the man who has steered Leeds United to the top of the Championship, with nine games left in the season.

"Bielsa is Bielsa," said Casilla.

"Speaking affectionately, there are days that you would kill him, but then you see how he prepares each week, how he analyses each game as if it were the last, and that is what the footballer notices.

"He knows a lot of football and, although his method is very demanding, he is tough, all of us at Leeds have improved a lot with him. It is worth the effort because you raise your head and you see that the team is attractive, that many teams do not stand the pace of play and physical. And this is a clear consequence of the work they have done, both he and his coach, arriving at eight in the morning in the sports city and leaving at eight in the evening."

After the very first game of the current season Bielsa was asked if he was happy with Casilla taking so many risks, coming so far from goal as he did on numerous occasions in the opening fixture at Bristol City.

The Argentine replied that if the risk paid off, it was worth taking.

Casilla has continued to hare off his line and play almost a sweeper-keeper role this season, and barring a mid-season period during which a number of his individual errors led to opposition goals, has been an effective part of the Leeds back line.

The keeper enjoys the benefits of the role, while accepting the potential pit falls.

"It makes you much more protagonist, you risk much more, play almost free," he said, of the demands on him individually in Bielsa's system.

"You have to accept the risk but at the same time it is entertaining, it makes you very connected to the team. There are games where I make more passes than the field players of the rival team."