Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips are without a doubt two of the Leeds United players who benefited the most from Marcelo Bielsa’s coaching.
Despite splitting opinion at Elland Road previous to Bielsa’s arrival, Phillips was able to establish himself as one of England’s top holding midfielders while training under the Argentine.
Phillips became a mainstay of Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions team and earned a move to Manchester City, where he will always be able to boast he won a treble despite not playing as often as he would have liked.
The 28-year-old might have returned to Leeds in the summer if his previous team had earned promotion, but he is now with Ipswich Town.
Though he has clearly lost his way, his work under Bielsa has ensured that the Premier League is the absolute bottom of his talent, when it appeared at one point that he would never be good enough to play at the top.
Meanwhile, Bamford had the best season of his career in the Premier League under Bielsa, which enabled him get his one and only England cap, something that seemed impossible.
Bamford and Phillips agree on Bielsa at Leeds.
It is well known how meticulous Bielsa was in his preparations when at Leeds. Whether it was about a player’s weight, the opposition, or statistics, no stone would be uncovered.
Phillips was a guest on the most recent episode of Bamford’s ‘My Mate’s A Footballer Podcast’, and one of the subjects discussed was Bielsa’s tenure at Leeds.
Both agreed that Bielsa was certainly the ‘harshest’ on Phillips, but only because of his love for him.
Bielsa has watched all of Phillips’ games since leaving Leeds, and he is the only footballer he would have allowed to marry his daughter.
With that in mind, Bamford and Phillips both shared stories about what made Bielsa so strict with the latter.
Phillips said: “We have got so many stories that we could sit here, talk about and laugh at…”
Bamford then said, “You know what, I believe he was the toughest on Kalv [Phillips agrees]. But that was because he knew what he could get Kalv to be, but he was absolutely the toughest on him compared to the other guys. He were instances when it changed from week to week, but Kalv was always the one he pushed.”
Phillips continued, “I believe Pat is referring to the fact that we would always need to shed a lot of weight. When we initially arrived, Bielsa was South American and preoccupied with body composition, weight, and fat, so I was at the top of the team, if not the highest.
“We had a pre-season where, I’m not even kidding, for three weeks I’d go home and eat nothing but a protein drink for dinner, only to return the next day and have to lose more weight. He was remained like that till the last week he was there; he would continually push me to meet a specific weight goal.
“I obviously respected it but then I knew that I can’t starve or dehydrate myself because eventually I am going to get injured, or I am going to stop performing.”
How did Phillips start at Ipswich Town?
Phillips has been surplus to requirements at Manchester City for some time, but his loan spell at West Ham last season did not go as expected.
As a result, he moved to freshly promoted Ipswich in the summer and now appears to be at a club where the spotlight is less focused on him.
Phillips has had a good start at Portman Road, and he put arguably his best performance yet in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Aston Villa, assisting Liam Delap’s goal.
Phillips appears to have the potential to develop a good midfield partnership with Sam Morsy this season, which would be critical to their survival chances.
