Delaval was part of Marcelo Bielsa’s staff at Leeds and left the club when the Argentine was sacked towards the end of February.
The Frenchman played a big part in helping Bielsa to take Leeds to the Premier League and the club were regularly praised for having one of the fittest teams in the top tier of English football.
Delaval admitted that the idea was to have the fittest team in the league as Bielsa’s style of football needed a heightened level of fitness from his players.
He conceded that the players might not have competed with the Premier League stars on technical ability but he wanted to make sure that they outran and outworked their opponents through their fitness levels.
“The idea was to be as fit as possible, and fitter than our opponents”, Delaval told The Athletic.
“We wanted to be a proactive team.
“The idea was to impose our football on the opponents, rather than the other way round. We worked a lot.
“If we weren’t able to make a difference from a technical or tactical point of view, we knew there might be a moment when our physical qualities could help us win a game.
“We had a demanding style.
“And it was important for us to be the fittest team in the league.”
Current Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch has claimed that the players were overworked and over-trained under his predecessor.
