CHAPELALLMAN wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 8:50 am
Something was wrong when the players came back after their summer break following that 9th place finish. I wonder if after 3 seasons of intensive training and murderball, with a sergeant major type manager some players just couldn't face another season following their luxury 5 star holidays.
Their whole attitude had changed, and anyway, many of them had already secured their futures with long PL contracts. Maybe some were thinking ' oh no, I've got to put my body through all this for another season, and there will be no squad rotation. '
I think you are right about that point - even a broken clock is right twice a day!
What needs to be considered though is that it was a very short break following on from a very short break the season before due to the covid disruptions and the league playing catch up. We ended the previous season fantastically losing just 1 of our final 11 matches -a defeat to Brighton - and conceding just 8 goals in those 11 matches despite playing Chelsea, Man C, Man U, Liverpool and Spurs. I feel that after that strong ending we maybe felt the players needed a break and gave them too long a break and didn't quite get the pre-season right so we were a bit undercooked at the start of the first match. I would compare this to several Aussie cricket tours in recent years where we seem to land in Australia and play before we seem acclimatised and are then 2-0 or 3-0 down before we start competing.
You then throw in players like Klich, KP and others who played international matches throughout the summer so didn't really get a break and it was all very disruptive.
We were also in unchartered territory in terms of how well players can cope with the intensive football for a longer period than Bielsa had been at a club before. So you have to try to balance that which wouldn't be easy. Players like Klich for example needing a rest but having to play due to the limited strength in our small squad - squad size is fine if the quality in the squad is okay because you can then rest players like Man City do.
So yes I do feel we were undercooked at the start but that may have led to us getting stronger towards the end of the season - this seemed to happen, to some degree, even after Bielsa left as the players were still fit. I would contrast it to a season I had as a player when the club I went to decided to carry on playing throughout the summer rather than taking a break. We started the season on fire, probably because we were fitter and more cohesive than other teams, but then I felt it caught up with us later in the season as we slumped from top to mid table and were getting beaten by teams we had comfortably beaten earlier in the season.
So I would agree with your point but disagree with your reasons for why it was so.
...That Ayling goal and "You couldn't script it 
" - Dirty Leeds B@stard.
