Liam Cooper told Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville that he is ‘sure’ that Marcelo Bielsa would ‘invite’ the duo to watch Leeds United’s famous ‘murder ball’ in action at Thorp Arch, as he told Sky Sports.
The Leeds defender explained to the Sky duo that there are usually ‘four segments of five minutes’ to the training session to which Carragher responded ‘is that all?’.
Bielsa is known for his high intensity, aggressive style, man-to-man marking and 100 miles-per-hour ways.
Out on the pitch, the Whites can probably outrun and outwork any team in the Premier League.
So, if the players are like that on match day then they are being royally prepared behind the scenes.
Carragher asked Cooper to explain murder ball to him, as the Scotland international shared that you can ‘get stuck into each other’ because there are no fouls.
“Can I just ask you, not just so much the game but this training and murder ball,” said Carragher.
“How hard is that? Is this just man-to-man all over the pitch? Is it another 90-minute game, explain it to me.”
Cooper responded: “It usually four segments of five minutes.” to which Carragher responded: “Is that all?”
Cooper then continued: “Multi balls all around the pitch. He expects the intensity to be there. There aren’t any fouls, so you can get stuck into each other.
“It’s high intensity. I am sure Marcelo would invite you down to watch a session. But it’s hell for leather. We get a lot out of it. It’s probably the best session of the week, for me and the lads as well. We enjoy it.”
Leeds’ all-action style hasn’t resulted in them picking a win this season and fans will be feeling a little twitchy.
Whilst the performances have been encouraging, especially against Newcastle on Friday night, they just can’t get that confidence-boosting result on the board.
Continually leaking goals is an issue, but when you play as expansive as Bielsa’s team perform then that’s going to happen.
Added with that, injuries and suspensions don’t help, but Bielsa, like always, opted to go into the new Premier League campaign with a thin squad.
And that’s proving to be a problem, especially at the heart of the club’s defence.
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