Benoit Delaval has it noted in his jam-packed schedule. Norwich City vs. Leeds United on May 16. Even though Delaval works at RC Lens these days, the former player for Bielsa has made sure he is “booked in” to watch tonight’s play-off semi-final second leg of his former team.

Leeds is in my blood and heart,” the former fitness coach for the team said to Leeds Live. “I would like to have them in the Premier League until the end of my life.”

Delaval, who witnessed the absurdity of the play-offs firsthand in 2019, is more familiar than most with their peculiarities. Like Daniel Farke’s current team, Marcelo Bielsa’s team won just one of their last five league games. Leeds did, however, manage to win the first leg of their semi-final away against Derby County 1-0 in spite of their inconsistent play.

“We were not ready to play a game so important like that,” Delaval admitted. “When we won the first-leg, away from home, the impression was, ‘That’s over. We are already in the final.’ It was not like that. We were maybe a bit too confident. We were not ready like we were for the first-leg inconsciently.

“I don’t want to say it was great to lose the play-off semi-final – it’s impossible to say that – but the second season was the result of the first one…the hours and days after the Derby defeat were terrible but, maybe five weeks later when we came back, we were stronger and more than ready to get promoted without the play-offs. We didn’t want to replay a play-off like that.

“Everything was clear. We wanted to finish top of the league. From the start of that next season, we were almost invincible. Everyone was ready to come up. It was the best moment in my professional life.”

When he thinks back on the ‘unbelievable’ 10 days that Leeds had, with ‘four or five parties’ to celebrate reaching milestones like winning the 2020 trophy, becoming champions, and gaining automatic promotion, Delaval still beams. ‘Fans were missing’ was the main drawback for Delaval, but the team did get to spend a moment together outside Elland Road with those fans who couldn’t make it to games because of COVID limitations. After some time, Bielsa even stopped by, “pushing everyone to do their best.”

“Working with him is very exciting because we work a lot but, on the pitch, it’s something special,” Delaval stated. “We have a lot of energy and initiative.

“Marcelo has a proper playing style and to enable the players to play 46 games in the Championship or 38 games in the Premier League is not easy for the fitness coaches, medical team or performance department, but it’s an exciting challenge. When you do your job to your best and try to develop and try to get the players to fit into the system, afterwards, you have unbelievable emotions. These were memories for life.”

Delaval discreetly contributed behind the scenes to getting the players Bielsa fit, which is a physical condition that is unlike any other. He came to collect the 2019 FIFA Fair Play trophy for Leeds alongside Liam Cooper. However, it is telling that Delaval, instead of attempting to claim any kind of credit, emphasises the ‘collective’: Rob Price’s medical department; his former colleagues Ruben Crespo and Tom Robinson, who were the assistant fitness coaches and rehabilitation, respectively, at the time; the club’s technical staff and analysts; and, lastly, the players who put in the hard work during those intense sessions.

After all, not everyone is a murderball fan. Wednesday’s 11 v 11 drills were unlike anything the team had ever done before. They saw players trade blows for twenty-five minutes straight with no breaks in between, and staff members cheered them on and threw the ball back into play whenever it went out. Most of the fouls went uncalled.

“All the clubs in the world play 11 v 11 at least once a week, but the special thing was the intensity was very high so for this reason the term murderball was born,” Delaval said. “It’s the most demanding part of the week and this is useful because if you are able to finish murderball once a week, almost all the games are easier.”

Although there was a science behind murderball, Delaval freely acknowledged that he “didn’t know how this word came about,” coming from outside the club. Let’s look at Leeds’ inaugural Premier League season. Although the average length of a top-tier game at the time was 96 minutes, the average effective playing time was only 54 minutes. The participants were aware that they had completed almost half of a game at an exceptionally high intensity when they had a murderball session lasting 25 minutes in total.

Leeds’ Duracell Bunnies soon gained admirers in high places. Leeds and Manchester United are obviously still in love, but in 2020, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the previous manager of the Red Devils, referred to the Whites as the “fittest team” in the Premier League.

When it came to sprints and high-intensity running, nobody could compete. As Leeds defeated his West Brom team 5-0, covering a distance of about 120 km, Sam Allardyce said, “Leeds didn’t just outplay us – they outran us.” Following a 4-2 victory over Newcastle United, in which the former Leeds forward “ran around like a nutcase,” a stunned Jonjo Shelvey was forced to order Rodrigo to “stand still for one minute.”

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Leeds’ first season back in the Premier League was how they adhered to Bielsa’s beliefs and finished ninth. Delaval beamingly said, “We didn’t change our way of thinking or playing.”

But as injuries and losses mounted, Bielsa’s second season unravelled, and Leeds dropped to 16th place in the standings in February. By the time Leeds lost their fifth game in six, 4-0, in their home stadium to Spurs, Delaval already knew what was going to happen.

“It was very difficult,” the Frenchman said. “You are at Elland Road. After the game, you know that you are going to be sacked.”

“You are at Thorp Arch the next day to pick up your belongings. You bid everyone farewell on Monday and call it a day. It happens so quickly. Although you are aware that this could happen to you, you are never prepared for it. That’s how football works. That’s just how things are.

Under Jesse Marsch, Bielsa’s replacement, Leeds managed to survive, despite the Whites having the worst injury record in the Premier League that season due to his “training methodology.” Marsch said that because the athletes were “over-trained,” they were “in a difficult place emotionally, mentally, physically, and psychologically.” Was that painful?

“When you change something in a company, the new arrival will have the opposite way of the previous one,” Delaval added. “Maybe the guy after Jesse Marsch will say the team is not ready to play in the Premier League.

“The most important thing was we did our very best every day. We worked a lot. We had convictions and we didn’t move from them. We were honest, clear and accurate with everyone. I prefer to stay away from this kind of unnecessary talk.”