Leeds United’s plans for the World Cup break are coming together with Jesse Marsch confirming the club’s intentions following Saturday’s Premier League outing. The Whites travel to Tottenham Hotspur this weekend as the top flight grinds to a halt while the tournament in Qatar takes centre stage.
United will have almost seven weeks to wait until their next competitive fixture against Manchester City at Elland Road on December 28, but it seems they have plenty planned over the lay-off. A friendly against Spanish side Real Sociedad has been organised before Christmas and a warm weather training camp has been mooted, too.
The squad will be given time to recover from the opening 14 Premier League games, though, with Marsch keen to see his players rest up and recuperate for a week following the clash in north London.
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“They will all have a week off then we give them a physical programme for another week to do on their own,” Marsch said. “So they will have two weeks off but the first week they do absolutely nothing.
“Then we come back in on the 28th here and we do testing. We have a good plan and I think we have some good opponents and then we'll have most of the team together which is a positive.”
When asked how he will be approaching the break and whether the break would be a help or hindrance, Marsch added: “The season in general has been quite segmented. I think any chances to have a little bit of a pause are always a chance to re-evaluate, to gather ourselves mentally and physically to really go full gas at it again.
“That's the way we will use it. What you know in football in general is that the mental grind can sometimes be bigger than the physical one. This is the reality.
“It's the attention to this league and the attention to the pressure, the expectation of our club and everything means that any kind of break that we can gather to sort of recharge our batteries and make sure that when we go at it, we go at it all the way because that's what the demands are. I think it'll be a good chance for us to gather the World Cup guys, I think there'll be ready as well, and then and then when we get back at it, we have some big challenges ahead of ourselves again.”
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