Leeds United confirm Jesse Marsch as Marcelo Bielsa's replacement as coach - Yorkshire Post 28/2/22


Leeds United have appointed Jesse Marsch as their new coach to pull them away from the Premier League relegation zone without abandoning the pressing principles Marcelo Bielsa built the squad around.

By Stuart Rayner

With no transfer window until the summer, the 48-year-old's job is to get the most out of a small, injury-hit squad created for the Argentinian, who was sacked on Sunday after his fourth season turned into a relegation battle.

It was concerns over Leeds's league position, two points above the Premier League's bottom three having played two more games than the teams directly below, Everton and Burnley, which caused Bielsa's sacking in the absence of any significant fan pressure for it.

But the Whites had already been planning to bring Marsch in when Bielsa's contract expired in the summer and the fact he is out of work and has a good relationship with director of football Victor Orta made it easy to bring him in quickly. Getting a work permit was the most complicated hurdle,but he has now signed a contract until 2025.

Orta revealed Marsch had been in his plans for a number of years.

“Jesse is someone we identified a number of years ago during his time at Red Bull Salzburg and we believe his philosophy and style of football aligns with that of the club and will suit the players very well," he said.

“We have a long-term plan and firmly believe he can take Leeds United to the next level and are excited for what the future holds.”

Marsch is only the third American manager to work in the Premier League after Swansea City's Bob Bradley and Huddersfield Town's David Wagner but he has had a global education in coaching as part of the famed Red Bull network.

The twice-capped midfielder who spent his entire playing career in Major League Soccer (MLS), began his coaching life as an assistant to the United States national team in 2010, broken up by a spell with Montreal Impact which was short-lived because of a difference over coaching "philosophies".

It was joining New York Red Bulls in January 2015 that was the most significant point of his coaching career to date.

Since Ralf Rangnick became the director of football at both Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig, the energy drink's franchise tried to play an energetic pressing style with similarities to the football Bielsa so thrillingly brought to West Yorkshire.

With the best win record in the club's history, having been named MLS coach of the year and winning the 2015 MLS Supporters' Shield, it was no surprise when he moved to the Leipzig franchise in 2018, as Rangnick's assistant manager, then replaced current Borussia Dortmund coach Marco Rose as Salzburg coach in the summer of 2019.

He won consecutive doubles before succeeding Bayern Munich-bound Julian Nagelsmann in Leipzig for this season. That was the first failure of his coaching career, cut short in December after nine defeats in 21 games. He has been out of work since.

Marsch's brief will be to build on what Bielsa achieved, not rip it up and start again.

Chief executive Angus Kinnear described him as having "the courage and ambition to build on the strong foundations we have created over the last four years and elevate the performance of the club over the long-term."

Tellingly, given Leeds's issues, one of the criticisms levelled at him by German television pundit Steffen Effenberg was that he tried to win games 5-3.

Having shipped 20 goals in their last five matches, Leeds will need to tighten up defensively but Marsch is regarded as more pragmtatic than the romantic he succeeds.

Assistants Diego Reyes, Pablo Quiroga and Luis Ouvina are reported to have left with Bielsa, as well as fitness coach Benoit Delaval, but head of analysis Guillermo Alonso and goalkeeping coach Marcos Abad, who both worked with Orta at Middlesbrough, have not.

Marsch's first game in charge will be at Leicester City on Saturday, with 11 more to play after that this season.

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