Doncaster Rovers have been doing a lot of training recently, so they might be glad of the rest when they finally play a match again on Boxing Day.

Largely thanks to the recent cold snap, the League Two game at Tranmere Rovers will be only their third since November 19.

It has meant lots of time on the training ground where, influenced in part by Marcelo Bielsa, Schofield likes his players to work harder than they would in a match.

"If we train as hard as possible we can try and make the game easier although the game's never easy," he reasons.

INFLUENCE: Doncaster Rovers coach Danny Schofield saw Marcelo Bielsa's unique methods first hand at Leeds United

"We train with an intensity. If we're in the following day there'll be an on-pitch recovery session which is really light but apart from that, I'd rather reduce the time on the pitch to get a high intensity than extend the session and get a low intensity."

Schofield has seen it work before.

He was a youth coach at Leeds United when the inimitable Bielsa brought his notoriously tough training regime to West Yorkshire, and saw Carlos Corberan carry it on at Huddersfield Town when the pair moved there.

Leeds won promotion to the Premier League in 2021, Huddersfield were 90 minutes away last summer.

"Observing Marcelo Bielsa's methodology it was always very intense – probably the most intense methodology I've ever seen – and he did have success doing it so you're always trying to learn and take things from it," says Schofield. "If you see things bringing success you think, 'There must be something in this!'

"But you have to do it your own way too because I don't think anyone can replicate anyone else."

Danny Schofield brings Doncaster Rovers a touch of Marcelo Bielsa in intense training sessions