Leeds United: Five reasons The Whites will be hard to beat next season

The newly promoted side have witnessed a renaissance under Argentinian tactician Marcelo Bielsa.

Leeds United are finally back into the Premier League after their 16-year exile from the top-flight of English football. They have done it in style as the Whites have been crowned champions for the 2019-20 season of the EFL Championship. This is a remarkable achievement considering their painful end to the previous campaign when they narrowly missed out on promotion.

After being in the top for the majority of the year, they couldn’t secure an automatic promotion following injuries to key players, damaging shock losses, and just inconsistent form in the second half of the season. A defeat in the second leg of the playoffs to Derby County brought an agonizing end to their bid for promotion.

A year on from their latest ordeal, they have completed their long-awaited dream and will yet again compete among the finest sides in the country. However, Marcelo Bielsa’s men won’t be just looking to make up the numbers, instead, will be determined to make their presence felt in the league. Accordingly, here are five reasons why Leeds United could be one to watch out for in the Premier League next term.

5. Marcelo Bielsa's dynamic football

All of Marcelo Bielsa's teams are renowned for their trademark high-energy, intense attacking football that is enormously enthralling for their viewers. The Argentine demands a lot from his players in terms of fitness, technical quality, and their willingness to run their socks off whenever they take the field. His expectations might at times seem unrealistic and daunting but therein lays one of the major reasons for his success.

Bielsa dramatically improves each individual and subsequently the team by demanding a rise in standards concerning their professionalism, work in the gym, eating habits and so forth. Such meticulous work in turn can be seen in the palpable improvement of his players and the goals that once seemed impractical, are then achieved through consistent rigorous work on the training ground.

Their militaristic training regime enables them to maintain insane energy levels during the game that helps them in their pugnacious pressing methods. Winning the possession in threatening areas and breaking away quickly in numbers are some of the salient features of their play.

Don’t let their laser-quick attacking transitions fool you though, Leeds United are more than adept in keeping possession for large periods of the game and have breached countless low-blocks in the Championship through their relentless waves of attacks and innovative attacking moves. They are constantly moving on the pitch, trying to create openings. Their exciting football will make the side quite a prospect for the Premier League clubs next season.

4. Atmosphere at Elland Road

Elland Road, the home ground of Leeds United, is a difficult place to collect all three points for any travelling party. The crowd creates a raucous and intimidating atmosphere that affects even the most formidable teams. Mind you, they have waited 16-long years to get back into the big time and faced numerous heartbreaks along the way, including the unfathomable prospect of almost seeing their beloved club go into liquidation.

After all those disappointments, all those years of misery, they will finally see their side go toe-to-toe with some of the other heavyweights of English football. Old rivalries will be renewed. A city have got their football club back, and one can be assured that they will be creating a proper ruckus next year as they spur their players on to greater heights in the big league.

3. Fearless attitude

At times, when teams are promoted to the Premier League, there is a tendency to play in a more conservative manner, given the gulf in quality between them and a few of the elite sides in the division. Hence, in order to get a positive result, managers are forced to deploy defensive tactics and play on the counter to avoid being played off the park by their superior opposition.

However, that will rarely be the case with Bielsa’s Leeds United. One can expect his side to press high, force mistakes out of the opposition, and be aggressive in their approach. They might suffer a few embarrassing results due to their methods, but they are expected to remain true to their style of football. 

Playing on the front-foot will help them to take advantage of the defensive fragilities existing in the backlines of a few of the top sides. On the other hand, the rest of the teams will undoubtedly be wary of facing a side that are so direct, explosive, and exhaustingly unrelenting.

2. Resilient mentality

Another defining feature of Leeds United in the last couple of years has been the never-die-attitude. There have been a number of occasions during these two seasons under Bielsa when the side conceded a goal against the run of play, but then have rallied again to snatch an equalizer or a winner towards the dying embers of the game.

Their ability to go hammer and tongs until the final whistle is a reflection of their outstanding fitness levels and endurance, which has gradually developed under the Argentine. Having played at such a high level of intensity in the Championship, they will be itching to test themselves against a higher caliber of opponents in less physically demanding conditions.

1. The Bielsa Factor

Ever since he agreed to take on the job, Marcelo Bielsa has completely transformed the fortunes of the club and has completed the mission of taking the Whites back to the promised land. More importantly, Bielsa singlehandedly changed the culture at the club as he imposed his ways, demanded excellence from those around him, and embarked in his own unique manner to bring them back to where they belong.

For many years now, the Leeds United faithful were disgruntled with their club and rightly so. The disastrous way in which they were run, the point deductions, the multiple changes in ownership, and the constant chopping and changing of managers had created bitterness towards their own club among the fans. Bielsa made the fans fall back in love with the club. He reignited hope. He restored previously lost belief. That is probably his biggest achievement.

The Argentinian’s tactical genius and football-obsessive demeanor are already well-documented but these are the equally important intangibles that are often less talked about. With Bielsa in the dugout, Leeds United appears as an incredibly dangerous outfit and could make life extremely difficult for their Premier League counterparts next season.