Leeds United cannot play the same way in 2025/26’s Premier League as they did when winning the Championship title under Daniel Farke.
Last season, no Championship team had anywhere close to Leeds United’s average possession share of 61.6%, with Norwich City second with 58.2%.
Southampton had the highest of last season’s newly-promoted sides, having just 48.7% (11th highest in the league), with the Saints finishing bottom of the division.
Having secured 190 points over the last two seasons with the club, Daniel Farke has plenty of credit in the bank heading into the Premier League. However, they will need to evolve in order to survive.
Leeds have already made the move to prioritise Premier League physicality via having superior size and athleticism in the team compared to last season. They aren’t finished in that department yet, either.
Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty ImagesHow Daniel Farke intends to be more like Marcelo Bielsa in 2025/26
We expect that Leeds may flit between a 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, and 3-4-3 at times next season, based on the way they have recruited for greater versatility with the new personnel — as shown by the arrival of the versatile Anton Stach to Leeds.
There also has to be increased focus on Leeds using set-pieces this season. Above all, though, they are intent on ensuring they are building a Premier League-ready Leeds team with experience.
Leeds’ Premier League team is already significantly taller than last season’s and that will help compete against vastly superior technical teams, by making the games a battle and played on Leeds’ terms in a physical sense.
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Physicality comes in various different guises, with more of an onus on aggression and intensity out of possession also required. Farke’s already hinting at more Leeds adaptability with flexibility in terms of formation and shape already spoken about.
That can help them become more compact in a mid-block, but the other way is to ensure they have a number of players with excellent engines and fitness levels, much like Leeds were the last time they were promoted under Marcelo Bielsa.
Inside Leeds’ week in Germany, staying where Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal stayed during Euro 2024 #LUFC 🇩🇪
🚲 Cycling around the villages
🔫 Paintball without Daniel Farke
💪 The strategy behind signing ‘giants’
🇯🇵 Why they chose Germany over Japan https://t.co/jiQdW2RKxB— Aadam Patel (@aadamp9) July 27, 2025
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Per Aadam Patel in the Daily Mail, it appears Farke is willing to take a leaf out of Bielsa’s book on that front. He explains that Farke wants his players to be flexible, depending on the level of Premier League opposition.
But, most crucially, it’s stated that Farke — much like the enigmatic Argentine — “also wants his team to be the fittest in the league. Off the ball, the work has notched up considerably since then returned to Thorp Arch.”
On top of that, Patel spoke to Sam Byram for the reasons behind this. Byram explained: “If we can be the fittest team in the Premier League, then it can only help us. So it’s something everyone has been working really hard on.”
Photo by Alex Dodd – CameraSport via Getty ImagesLeeds United’s running data under Marcelo Bielsa in 2020/21
It’s all immaterial if Leeds aren’t a match for teams off the ball. Back in 2021, The Athletic explained that irrepressible energy is one of the first things you notice about any Bielsa team. Stating that “it is a cornerstone of his footballing philosophy.”
Whether it be through their pressing, counter-pressing, recovering, or even counter-attacking, running harder has been a key reason Leeds have comfortably achieved a top-10 finish that season, as shown below from Skill Corner on Twitter/X.
In case you missed it, we looked at the average tea, too and league level sprinting distance for the start of the 2020/21 season on more than 20 leagues. We can see the effect of Marcelo Bielsa’s unique playing style as Leeds United have the highest sprint output in Europe. pic.twitter.com/7j6umFduEM
— SkillCorner (@SkillCorner) December 10, 2020
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Leeds did not just run a lot. They ran overwhelmingly harder than everyone else, to the point where they forced their opposition to run hard, too. Clearly, this is something they are focusing on again tactically this summer.
The report from The Athletic depicts a number of areas Leeds outran their peers in. For the most part, that energy-sapping style yielded points, helping them skip over the Championship gap to the Premier League with consummate ease.
To somewhat of an extent, it seems to be the plan again. Can Farke coach that intensity and enact his own game plan at the same time as utilising some of Bielsa’s methods? It remains to be seen.