Pressing high. Sprinting at your opponent. Winning the ball back as fast as possible. All were tenets of Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch.
It’s an approach which has struggled to deliver consistent results since August 2021. The Whites needed change and Javi Gracia is bringing that to the table, with promising early results too.
Junior Firpo has been one of the biggest winners in the Leeds squad since his compatriot’s arrival at Elland Road. The left-back spoke to LeedsLive last week about the way the club has changed since Gracia replaced Marsch.
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“The biggest difference everyone can see now is we're compact in the way we look,” he said. “We don't do that high-intensity running all the time or this pressing all the time.
“We just wait for the right moment because if you wait for the right moment, after [that] you are fresh for [the] attack. This is the biggest difference between us before and us now.
“People need to know, sometimes, pressing all the time is not a good thing, especially against really good teams on the ball like Brighton [& Hove Albion]. Probably, if we pressed this team all the time, they will find the solution or they will find a way out and hurt us much more.
“This is the idea right now. Look at the other team, try to find a way how we can hurt them and do it on the pitch.”
The distance in the running is still there. Opta statistics show United’s 119.7km run versus Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday was the third-highest total of the season in the Premier League. Leeds hold the two highest marks too (Liverpool and Manchester United away).
Firpo’s suggestion is the choice of when to put in those shorter, sharper sprints has changed. The triggers are different under Gracia, as we saw in the Brighton draw when their defenders had free rein to retain possession.
It’s impossible to look at Firpo’s comments and not reflect on the latter days of Bielsa’s reign, when the division’s best teams were comfortably passing the ball around United’s man-to-man, high-risk strategy. There is a pragmatism which is getting results. Get results and you get the dressing room.
For all of the improvement there has been from Firpo, the left-back says there has not been any kind of special message from Gracia. If anything, the help has gone in the other direction.
“Honestly, he didn't say anything,” Firpo told LeedsLive. “He just puts the players on the pitch he thinks need to play to help the team and he didn't say anything.
“Obviously, he's Spanish and me too. His English is not the best so many times he finds all of the Spanish players have better English than him.
“Sometimes he needs some help to get the right message to some players, but he didn't say anything specifically [to me].”
More than just a tactical blueprint which is winning over players, Gracia’s training ground manner has been good for Firpo too. Much less the drill sergeant and more the understanding voice of reason on the pitches at Thorp Arch.
“He gets involved,” he said. “He manages the training, but it’s in a different way. He is a really calm man and this is cool for us well because this means we can be training relaxed, playing relaxed without anybody shouting at you or screaming at you in the ear all the time.”
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