'Finished': Pascal Struijk on Marcelo Bielsa's ruthless Leeds United test | OneFootball

Leeds United defender Pascal Struijk has revealed how Marcelo Bielsa’s unforgiving training standards built his resilience, recalling the moment youngsters were dismissed with a single word.

A teenager with the Under-23s in 2018, Struijk was often drafted into first-team sessions, where errors were barely tolerated and expectations were unrelenting.

“[Bielsa was] amazing,” Struijk said. “Very intense, but skills-wise I feel like he’s the best I’ve worked with for developing players.” He was speaking on the Official Leeds United podcast.

“There was this drill and if you didn’t do it well enough, especially as an Under-23s player coming over to train with the first-team, if it was not good enough he'd just say ‘Pascal, finished’, and I’d have to go back to the Under-23s again. This was a big part about how you get that mental strength and resilience from.”

“It tests your character,” Stuart Dallas said. “Bielsa was clever because, in a way, he wasn't doing it to kill your confidence. He wanted to see how you’d react.”

“If he’s seen your reaction he’d have thought ‘this kid wants it’. There were a few that were sent back quite a few times but Pascal wasn’t one of those.”

Struijk made five league appearances late in the 2019/20 promotion campaign, then featured 27 times in the ninth-placed Premier League season that followed.

Now 26, he is a key left-footed centre-back under Daniel Farke, stayed after relegation in 2023, and is the sole first-team outfield survivor of Bielsa’s title winners. Illan Meslier has not played this season, while Jack Harrison is on loan at Fiorentina.

Source: yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk