Football journalist Ashley Preece has claimed that the Aston Villa boss has been working the squad extremely hard in training during the past few weeks, with similarities to Leeds’ Bielsa.
The Englishman took over at Villa midway through the season, so he obviously did not have much time to work with the players before taking charge of his first game.
Now, though, thanks to the winter break, his new side have had some time to regroup in recent weeks. It seems that in this period, Gerrard has been able to truly implement his own ideas.
Could Steven Gerrard get Villa into Europe?
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Indeed, while speaking as a guest on a Leeds Live Facebook stream – ahead of Villa’s upcoming match against Leeds United – Preece suggested that the ex-Liverpool captain had ‘taken a leaf’ out of Marcelo Bielsa’s book with his rigorous training methods.
He explained: “He’s booked in two friendlies. They played Brentford last week and Molde on Saturday. So it is like a mini pre-season he’s having.
“When he came in November, his first game was within a week, he didn’t have time with the squad. So this last two-week winter break has been really good for him and his coaching staff to get amongst them. You know, games, playing the odd friendly, getting some minutes in the legs as well.
“I think double sessions as well. So he’s taking a leaf out of Bielsa’s book – don’t know if he’s doing murderball yet, but I’m sure that will come into it.
“But yeah, he does work them really hard. And that’s clear to see with the running stats you see now. Buendia’s doing 12k a game, really running himself into the ground. So yeah, that’s been taking a leaf out of old Leeds’ book, I think.”
TIF Thoughts on Steven Gerrard and Aston Villa…
Since taking over at Villa, Gerrard certainly has had a decent impact. Indeed, he has been in charge of 10 league games which have yielded five wins, one draw and four losses.
It’s not been perfect, but considering the limited amount of time he’s had to prepare on the training ground, the new boss has done well to guide the Villans back towards the top half of the table – they sit in 11th, level on points with Leicester City in 10th.
Bielsa is well known for his intense training sessions, which have had a transformative effect on Leeds in recent seasons.
Current player Mateusz Klich described the infamous ‘murderball’ as such: “It’s basically playing 11 v 11 with no stops.
“Constantly running around and sprinting, and you have all the coaches on the pitch basically screaming all the time and basically you can’t stop running.”
It will be interesting to see how the Villa players respond to Gerrard’s methods and whether he can have the same sort of impact the Argentine has had in Yorkshire.
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