Leeds United senior player reveals behind the scenes Javi Gracia quality players ‘love’ to BBC man Adam Pope
Javi Gracia’s instructions to the Leeds United players appear to be working because they are “really simple and clear”, a senior player told Adam Pope.
The Spaniard has picked up two wins and a draw from his four Premier League games in charge at Elland Road to improve the club’s standing in the relegation battle, and his tactics have made a visible difference compared to predecessor Jesse Marsch already.
It seems that the messaging behind the scenes is helping make improvements quickly by not overloading the players, something that former boss Marcelo Bielsa also believed in avoiding.
Pope said on BBC podcast Don’t Go To Bed Just Yet on Tuesday (21 March, 13m 45s): “I spoke to quite a senior player at the club, just by accident, the other day, and they said [Gracia’s] messages are really simple and clear.
“There isn’t like 15 hours of video to watch and all this stuff. That’s one thing, players love that, we know that.
“Bielsa used to talk about having a finite amount of video time to deliver information to players, I think he said seven minutes.”
On track
It is still early days but whatever Gracia is doing is working so far, the unfortunate exit from the FA Cup to Fulham aside, and if he keeps it up then the club will be a Premier League outfit again next season.
Marsch’s ideas were supposed to be the natural successor to Bielsa’s as he was handpicked by Victor Orta to succeed the iconic Argentine, but that clearly didn’t work out.
Gracia has overcome an initial issue with goalscoring to have his side utilising width in a way the American never did, and six goals and four points heading into the international break has been a major boost.
Whether any one of the other numerous candidates the club attempted to replace Marsch with in the two weeks after his 6 February sacking would have had the same effect is impossible to say.
But it does seem that one way or another the hierarchy eventually landed on a suitable option to save the club from relegation, and the oblivion that would entail in terms of the takeover and the stadium renovations.
It was long suspected that there was enough quality in this squad to be a long way from the bottom of the table, and while that is now far truer in places than it is in points – 14th place but two points from the bottom three – the early signs under Gracia do seem to be proving that to be true.
In other Leeds United news, a permanent departure from Elland Road is now on the cards with the club set to benefit from a good fee.
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