Leeds United's Kalvin Phillips back tackling the hard yards to success

LEEDS UNITED are back in pre-season training and Kalvin Phillips is expecting a summer just as demanding as 2018.
MAXIMUM EFFORT: Leeds Uniteds Kalvin Phillips, centre, admits last summers pre-season training under then new head coach Marcelo Bielsa was the toughest he has ever encountered and the midfielder expects more of the same this summer.MAXIMUM EFFORT: Leeds Uniteds Kalvin Phillips, centre, admits last summers pre-season training under then new head coach Marcelo Bielsa was the toughest he has ever encountered and the midfielder expects more of the same this summer.
MAXIMUM EFFORT: Leeds Uniteds Kalvin Phillips, centre, admits last summers pre-season training under then new head coach Marcelo Bielsa was the toughest he has ever encountered and the midfielder expects more of the same this summer.

Not that the 23-year-old will have any qualms with more double and triple sessions which led to the midfielder labelling the Whites as the fittest team in the Championship last term.

Phillips will take in his second day of pre-season training today with Leeds now having 40 days until their season opener at Bristol City and with the club’s first pre-season friendly taking place in just over two weeks’ time at York City.

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Come the Championship season itself, Phillips will be hoping for a similarly impressive campaign to 2018-19 in which the midfielder walked away with the club’s YEP ‘player-of-the-season’ award.

Outings in 44 league games led to 3,684 minutes of football with the hard yards of preparation now underway at Thorp Arch.

United’s players are returning to pre-season training in two groups with the vast majority of players back yesterday, just 40 days after the heartbreaking 4-2 loss at home to Derby County in the Championship play-off semi-final second leg.

A select group of players, including some of those involved in summer internationals, will return to training on Saturday as the long road begins to erasing the pain of being dumped out of the promotion race in the semi-finals.

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The second leg Elland Road reverse saw the Whites’ dreams of promotion go up in smoke despite them having taken the division by storm under head coach Marcelo Bielsa with Leeds in the Championship’s automatic promotion places until the final month of the season.

It was hard to fathom how Leeds ultimately failed to go up with champions Norwich City, runners-up Sheffield United and play-off winners Aston Villa now preparing for Premier League football in 2019-20.

Leeds, meanwhile, are sizing up their 16th consecutive season outside of the country’s top flight yet, for the vast majority of the season, 2018-19 looked like finally being the year. Phillips often pointed to the importance of a gruelling pre-season schedule last summer in taking United’s fitness to new levels.

Bielsa’s insistence that the club built a new 1km running track at Thorp Arch provided clear indication that United’s players would be looking at another extremely demanding summer in readiness for the Argentinian’s second crack at English football’s second tier; not that any indication was needed about a meticulous head coach, who leaves no stone unturned.

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As Phillips prepared to return to training, the former Wortley Junior was expecting more of the same as the summer of 2018.

“Last pre-season was one of the toughest I’ve ever been part of and I don’t expect anything else this time around,” said Phillips.

“The coaching staff and manager know how to get us into shape for the way we want to play and I’m sure the lads will all buy into it again and we can have another good season.

“The summer has been good, I’ve kept myself in shape and have been working hard and I’m just looking forward to the upcoming season now.

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“The summer has been quite short, but I don’t mind that. As soon as I get back into football, I am ready to go and I’m sure the rest of the lads will be as well.”

The return to pre-season arrived without the addition of any new faces at Thorp Arch with Leeds still working away in a bid to bring additions to the existing squad.

Yet whatever the make-up of United’s squad come the season proper, Phillips knows the hard work ahead of them in the coming days will again serve them well for the bid to secure promotion under Bielsa at the second time of asking.

Even after just five weeks of pre-season training last summer, the midfielder knew just how potent United’s fitness levels would be for the 2018-19 campaign.

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Speaking after the 1-0 win against Las Palmas in the club’s final pre-season friendly last July, Phillips said: “I don’t think there’s going to be many teams that can match us for fitness and physicality and I believe if we do that well in the season then we have got a very good chance.”

One week later, Leeds burst out of the traps to record a hugely impressive 3-1 victory at home to title favourites Stoke City which, by and large, set the tone for the rest of the season apart from the costly collapse in the final month.

The opening weekend demolition of Stoke was then followed by an even more impressive 4-1 win at Derby County and both Potters chief Gary Rowett and his successor at Derby Frank Lampard admitted their players had been caught cold by Bielsa’s team.

One year on, the Championship will be wiser and ready for the Whites, who carry the tag as title favourites into the new campaign.

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Phillips said: “I think a lot more teams will be prepared for us now, but, hopefully, we will have something up our sleeve and we can start the season how we did last time.”

A similar start to last season would be just what the doctor ordered and a similar summer is in store to give United the best chance of ending their wait for a top-flight return.