Former Leeds United striker Michael Bridges believes there may have been an element of ‘relief’ among the players when Marcelo Bielsa was sacked. The Argentine was relieved of his duties after an intense, yet highly successful three-and-a-half-year reign at Elland Road.
Bielsa has been renowned during his time in management for working his players to their maximum, both during matches and in training, too. Members of the Leeds squad would often reference his infamous session ‘murderball’ as more intense than a 90-minute game on the weekend.
However, while fitness levels in the squad were arguably the best across the country, Leeds had become ravaged by injury problems this season – losing the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Liam Cooper and Patrick Bamford to long-term injuries in recent months.
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Speaking to the GegenPod, Bridges thinks that although no player in the squad would’ve changed anything they achieved under Bielsa’s management, they may have been relieved to see him go as new boss Jesse Marsch will ‘monitor their training loads’ more so than his predecessor.
“Do you know what, I think there’ll be a bit of a relief," Bridges said. "Anyone that's coming in it was going to be a bit of a challenge, look what happened after Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, everybody was on a hiding to nothing. Bielsa, because of the reputation he’s got, I think some of the players will have been delighted to be honest with you.
“I saw Liam Cooper break down, I saw Kalvin Phillips break down, I saw Bamford break down - I just noticed that a lot of the players that had been under him for three years were just starting to break down due to the training regime. But they wouldn’t have changed anything in the past because Cooper became a Scotland regular - he would never have got that if Bielsa hadn’t come to the football club.
“But I just thought some of the lads that had been there for a while were just breaking down because of the workload. So I think it’ll be a good fresh start for the players to take on that high percentage pressing game that they do. I know Jesse’s all about that but he’ll be monitoring their training loads a lot better for them.”
