Leeds United face Norwich City in the second leg of their Championship play-off semi-final at Elland Road tonight, and former fitness coach Benoit Delaval will be among those watching from afar.

It’s written on Benoit Delaval’s busy schedule. Leeds United take on Norwich City on May 16. Delaval may be working at RC Lens these days, but the Bielsa disciple has ‘booked in’ to witness the second leg of his former club’s play-off semi-final tonight.

“I have Leeds in my heart and blood,” the club’s former fitness coach told Leeds Live. “I would like to have them in the Premier League until the end of my life.”

Delaval understands the peculiar nature of the play-offs better than others, having witnessed it firsthand in 2019. Marcelo Bielsa’s club, like Daniel Farke’s current squad, won just one of their last five league games. Despite their inconsistent form, Leeds won the opening leg of their semi-final away against Derby County 1-0.

Leeds appeared to be in possession, particularly after grabbing the lead in the return leg at Elland Road, but the hosts allowed Derby to re-enter the tie just before half-time and then crumbled, losing 4-2 overall.

The only sound you could hear in the tunnel that night was exuberant Derby players and staff singing ‘Stop crying Frank Lampard!’ in the away dressing room, but the Whites recovered stronger.

“We were not prepared to play a game as important as that,” Delaval conceded. “When we won the first leg away from home, the impression was, ‘That’s it. We’re already in the final. It wasn’t like that. Maybe we were overconfident. We were not prepared in the same way that we had been for the first leg.

“I don’t want to say it was nice to lose the play-off semi-final – it’s impossible – but the second season was a continuation of the first…

The hours and days following the Derby defeat were dreadful, but when we returned five weeks later, we were stronger and more than ready to be promoted without the play-offs. We didn’t want to re-run a play-off like that.

“Everything was clear.” We hoped to finish at the top of the league. We were nearly unstoppable from the beginning of the following season. Everyone was eager to go up. “It was the pinnacle of my career.”

Delaval still grins at the memory of Leeds throwing ‘four or five parties’ over the course of a ‘unbelievable’ ten days as key milestones were achieved, such as automatic promotion, champion status, and, finally, hoisting the trophy in 2020.

The only drawback for Delaval was that ‘fans were missing’, but the squad did get to spend a moment outside Elland Road with individuals who were unable to attend games owing to COVID-19 limitations. Even Bielsa came by after a long time, ‘pressing 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’re really proactive and lively.

“Marcelo has a good playing style, and allowing the players to play 46 games in the Championship or 38 in the Premier League is a difficult task for the fitness coaches, medical team, and performance department, but it’s an exciting challenge.

When you execute your work well and try to develop and fit the players into the system, you will experience incredible emotions. These were memories for a lifetime.”

Delaval, who collected the 2019 FIFA Fair Play award for Leeds alongside Liam Cooper, quietly contributed behind the scenes to getting Bielsa’s team ready, which is a unique physical condition. However, rather than attempting to claim any credit, it is rather telling that Delaval instead highlights the ‘collective’: the medical department managed by Rob Price; his former colleagues Ruben Crespo and Tom Robinson, who were the rehabilitation and assistant fitness coaches respectively at the time;

The club’s technical staff and analysts, as well as the players who put in the effort during those tough practices.

Murderball is not for everybody, after all. These 11 v 11 drills on a Wednesday were unlike anything the team had ever seen, as they traded blows for 25 minutes without pause as staff yelled at them and threw the ball back into play anytime it went out. The majority of the fouls went unpunished.

“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,” explained Delaval.

“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.”

Delaval freely stated that he ‘didn’t know how this word got about’ from outside the club, but murderball had a scientific basis. Consider Leeds’ first season back in the Premier League. Top-flight games lasted an average of 96 minutes, although the average effective playing time was 54 minutes. The participants were aware that by the end of their 25-minute murderball practice, they had completed nearly half of a game at a remarkably high level of intensity.