This season’s fixture list is more congested than ever before, with the campaign a full month shorter than usual and matches coming thick and fast.
Leeds United have started life back in the Premier League encouragingly, picking up 10 points from their opening six matches and have gone toe-to-toe with some of the best sides in the division.
Marcelo Bielsa is one of the most celebrated and influential coaches within the game, with his style of football focused on high intensity and pressing, with his players requiring a notably high level of fitness to maintain those standards.
Not only are players asked to close down the nearest player to them but also to cut off the passing avenue to the next player. The system is a fluid one with players swapping positions multiple times during matches as they attempt to win the ball high up the pitch and swamp their opponents.
But such demands come with a price, as that level of training can - so the theory goes - lead to players becoming fatigued and burning out in the latter stages of a campaign.
Those suggestions mean that there will inevitably be doubts over Bielsa’s team, despite them flying through the opening stages of the campaign and appearing to be fitter and sharper than their rivals.
However, this increasingly feels like a criticism that is based on myth more than fact. There is little doubt that the Argentine’s coaching methods place his players under a high strain, which brings inevitable benefits but also suggest that it could take its toll with a particularly high number of games.
What this does not factor in is that this season, Leeds will be playing eight fewer league matches than in their first two seasons under Bielsa. The Championship is a particularly demanding division with large periods of the campaign seeing multiple matches per week, with plenty of midweek matches sandwiched in-between the scheduled weekend clashes.
Not only do Leeds have a lighter league schedule this year, but they do not have to worry about European football either, as seven of their Premier League rivals do. They exited the League Cup after just one match, with FA Cup fixtures the only other element to factor in - yet there will be no replays this campaign and in any case, Bielsa is likely to ring the changes for that competition.
Furthermore, this is the club’s third full season under the Argentine and many of the first-team squad have been at Elland Road throughout this tenure. They have become accustomed to the intensity and demands of Bielsa, they have adjusted to what is expected and the long-term recruitment strategy has been in identifying and developing players who feel comfortable in the system.
This evolution has been notable since Bielsa’s first season at the helm, when Leeds fell away late in the campaign to fall just shy of automatic promotion and then to come up short in the playoffs. They won just one of their final six matches in the 2018/19 campaign, with the players appearing to be notably fatigued in the closing weeks.
Last season was different, with the team winning 12 of their final 14 matches and romping to the Championship title - showing their best form of this season. Of course, it may be pointed out that such a run of form could have been aided by football being suspended for over three months from March, giving the players time to recover and recuperate. However, this ignores that Leeds secured five wins on the bounce prior to football being brought to a halt and were well on course to promotion throughout the campaign.
Whilst the Premier League is a clear upgrade in quality from the Championship, the intensity levels are not notably different and Leeds have eight fewer league games to navigate.
Further to this, the squad is now significantly deeper than in previous seasons with the additions of Rodrigo, Diego Llorente, Robin Koch and Raphinha this summer. There is greater scope for Bielsa to rotate and for players to be given a brief rest during busy periods.
Leeds fans should remain confident that despite the myths, there is a growing body of evidence that their players can retain their intensity throughout the campaign.
