Jesse Marsch before Leicester says the young men are so energetic - The Square Ball 3/3/22

YOUNG MAN!

Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman

Jesse Marsch held his first press conference as Leeds United manager on Thursday afternoon, ahead of playing Leicester City on Saturday, and anyone hoping for a snappier less verbose mode of communication replacing Marcelo Bielsa and his translator(s) had to think again. Usually, when you cut out the translations, Bielsa’s pressers clocked under twenty minutes. Marsch gave us 45 minutes of all American talk. He did have a lot to cover, though, this being his first one. Even Paul Heckingbottom’s first press conference ran for 25 minutes, so maybe things will get briefer over time.

Some things will never change, though, such as a considerable amount of the audience not bothered about who is in the manager’s chair, they just want injury news so they can adjust their Fantasy League plans accordingly. Marsch spoke about plenty of other things:

Hoping conversations with Victor Orta would mean he’d be asked to be Leeds’ next coach, but not until at least the summer

Things changing eight days ago, when Orta called him, and Marsch “was ready” to argue Bielsa should stay on

He respectfully dodged questions about lowering training intensity, saying he wants to keep the levels but in a different way

He kept talking about “young men”, like “Rodrigo, an intelligent young man” or the squad, “a bunch of great young men”, like Neil Warnock crossed with Harry Enfield’s lecherous old ladies

He’ll be switching to zonal marking or pressing or whatever, and says the players have picked it up quickly

He’s spoken to 49ers Enterprises, “But I also want to make it clear that that’s not the main reason I’m here, and to say that there is an Americanisation of this club would be inaccurate”

Granted, though, those fantasy managers have needs that intersect with our own, because Leeds United’s Premier League survival chances would significantly increase with some key players back, whoever the coach is. So we’ll start with that:

Well, I can only tell you that Monday I came here, and I met with the medical team, and they introduced a whole myriad of injury situations to me. And there’s been a little bit of a cycle here where guys have been fighting through injuries, and often playing with injuries. And it means that they’ve sometimes then picked up other injuries and put themselves more in danger of missing minutes. And so what I need to do is help guys recover as quickly as possible, but not endanger them and not overload them, to put them in situations to further be in danger. And then, yeah, make sure that we have a long term vision in place for what that’s going to mean. It’s again, I said this before, it’s twelve games, it’s not three games, it’s not four games, right? And I know that we need points, but we need to make sure that we’re getting stronger as we move along and not weaker on that note.

Okay, Jesse, but I think the question was about which players people can put in their fantasy teams for the weekend?

Patrick Bamford was in training today. Kalvin [Phillips] and Liam [Cooper] are both making progress. They won’t be ready for the weekend, but they’re on the pitch. They’re working every day. They’re getting closer and closer to being in team training. And then we have a bunch of other guys who have missed a little bit of training this week, and we’re trying to evaluate what are the risks and rewards of all of the different players and how many minutes are appropriate for them to to be able to perform on Saturday.

Finally, we got there. There was some more detail later:

We will evaluate Patrick, and what that means [is], can he be on the bench? Does he need a few more days? But he’s close. I can tell you that he’s close. Diego Llorente was not in training today, and he’s questionable for the weekend. Obviously, with Liam and Kalvin, we’ve already spoken. And then a few, you know, there’s a few others that we are just kind of going step by step, and making sure that we can prepare them as much as possible, but that we’re not pushing too hard.

The big story of the day was always going to be about the transition from Bielsa to Marsch, and Jesse said all the right things about respecting his predecessor’s work, and about how he can build on what has been done in the last three and a half years:

Well, I mean, this is the reason I’m here I think, right? I certainly didn’t have the career, a coaching career, managerial career, that Marcelo had before he came. But I think anyone who is in charge of the sporting side of a club should do a really good job of trying to figure out what, in the end, are processes and succession plans for players, for staff, certainly for managers, so that the transition from one phase of a club to the next is as smooth as it can possibly be. And certainly then, when I sit and talk with Victor at different moments, and he explains to me the reasons why he believes I’m the right person, you can’t help but be attracted to that kind of analysis, and also energy. So, yeah, I believe as well. It’s the reason I’m here, it’s because I believe in many ways that I can be the right kind of fit and it can be the right kind of fit for me.

When exactly he sat and had those moments with Victor Orta was another question, and bits across the press conference fit together to give some whens. It’s worth going back further than Marsch did, to last summer, because there has been talk that Leeds decided then to make this season Bielsa’s last; if they did, Marsch wasn’t going to be replacing him, because last summer he was starting the dream job he’d been working towards for years as the “company man”, the pinnacle of Red Bull: Leipzig. He was given a two-year contract, so if that had gone well, he would not have been available this coming summer. Instead he was out of work as of 5th December, and told The Athletic in mid-January that he was in England for meetings about his future. Marsch and Orta have become mates over the last couple of years, and it seems like Orta must have told him in January that, if he bided his time until summer, there might be a new job for him at Leeds, but no promises:

If you go back even two weeks, I wasn’t sure, I wasn’t 100 percent sure, that I was definitely the next coach of Leeds United, next manager. I had hoped that, based on our conversations in our positive exchanges, that that was going to be a high possibility, but I wasn’t sure.

It sounds like he spoke to Andrea Radrizzani too, although this came up during one of only a couple of times Marsch’s self-assurance seemed to slip, whenever he was asked about the future beyond this season; in this case, about the idea that the club think he’d be the right person to bring Leeds straight back up should the worst happen in the next twelve games:

Well, in the process, Andrea asked me, would I come if at the end of the season they were in the Premier League or in the Championship? And I said, if I felt that the project was right, that absolutely it didn’t matter. And so when they came to me eight days ago, then it was time to show that I meant that.

Eight days ago is the crucial acceleration. It’s the day we played Liverpool, and the day Orta, Radrizzani and/or whoever else got back in touch to say, how about you start next week? Although Marsch says it was time to show his commitment to the project, he also says he wanted them to let Bielsa finish the season, although it’s not entirely clear if he said that out loud to Orta or just thought about saying it:

Yeah, of course I didn’t want Marcelo to have to go out like this. I wanted to see him continue and finish his legacy and keep the team up. I wanted to make that argument with Victor when he called me, right? But I could see that the group was suffering, right? And so then I had to wrap my mind around doing it now. And my focus, entirely, is not on the Championship, it’s on finding ways that we will be in the Premier League. So in the end, I’m committed to being here, no matter what the situation, because I believe in it so much.

Someone asked for clarity, but left a loophole in the phrasing of their question: ‘Am I right in saying that you were ready to try and convince Victor’ that Bielsa should stay to the end the season?

Yeah. Again, I said that, I think I was ready to to say that … I wanted Marcelo to finish on a high note, and the club to finish on a high note with Marcelo and the fans. And then, you know, if that was going to be a possibility for me to be the person to take over, then obviously I was going to be very open to what that idea would mean.

Enough of whether he tried to talk Leeds out of giving him the job. He’s here now, and he’s very impressed with the young men he’s found at Leeds:

I would say that the adaptation process here has been incredibly smooth because the people are so amazing … honestly, I’ve worked with some incredible teams, and good young men, and this group here is remarkable. So it gives me big hope that we can adapt things quickly and that I can help them be successful.

There’s been a bunch of great young men [he’s met this week], you know, speaking with Liam Cooper and Luke Ayling, it’s easy to see that they are comfortable in front of the group, that they’re comfortable in leadership roles. I think Adam Forshaw has been also fantastic. There’s, you know, a guy like Patrick Bamford has a lot of personality. I want to challenge Kalvin Phillips to take a bigger and bigger role within the team, and he’s obviously so important. Getting him healthy, but also getting him to take a bigger role in the team, I think will be massively important as well. Stuart Dallas, for me, is one of the hardest workers and strongest young men, who is clear with himself and clear with how to work for the team every day. Rodrigo, an intelligent young man who wants to help in every way, you know. And then there’s a lot of positive energy in a lot of the young guys, and a lot of what I’ve done in my managerial career is about managing young players and helping them achieve their highest potential. So I have excitement in the group and the excitement of being here.

I used to have an equation, Mike Grella would know this [from working together at New York], fear to fail equals failure. And the way we play, our style of play, is fearless. I think we have a lot of fearless young men here. We have to tap into that fearlessness. It will help us in a situation like this … I miss Mike Grella. I miss another guy like Lloyd Sam. They were great players for me and great young men.

If you talk about me as a manager, that’s what I care about the most. I love tactics and I love football. But I really love working with young men, and helping them understand how to continue to improve and be the best version of themselves.

They don’t need reinforcement on effort here. These young men are hard workers.

I once tried to get a drinking game going for every time Bielsa said an injured player’s recovery was ‘subject to his evolution’. It looks it’s ‘young men’ for Jesse. Pour out another shot for the next bit, about whether these young men are low on confidence:

I honestly didn’t feel it, because the young men are so energetic, positive, also united, like it’s a group that you can tell has already been through a lot. And again, so then my focus is how to help them channel those energies to make them better. But it’s, again, I know it’s a big opportunity. I know that there are, you know, factions of people that may not accept me so well because of their love for Marcelo. But in the end, you know, I just want the team to show how good they are, right? And to show that as good as Marcelo is and was, that the team is good too, and the players are good. And so that will be a lot of my focus, to help those guys really express themselves.

Raise your own eyebrow at the ‘factions of people’, and whether he means among the players, staff or fans. He certainly doesn’t mean Mark Jackson. Jacko — he’s already calling him Jacko — has been promoted from the Under-23s to first team coach, and Jesso was glad to be reminded by Jacko that they met before, on United’s post-season Whites in Washington tour of 1997:

I can tell you that it’s only been two days I’ve worked with Mark Jackson, but it’s like we’ve known each other for years. Jacko is an amazing guy. He’s very flexible and adaptable. He reminded me, which I didn’t know, that we had played against each other. Leeds took a summer trip, I think, for pre-season to America. In 1997, yeah, long time ago, he remembered that we played against each other. I asked him if I’d fouled him at any point, because that was kind of my — I was good at that. But he said he couldn’t remember that much.

I think he’s been vital, and it’s not just about his experiences, it’s about the type of person he is. I mean, honestly, I’ve been really lucky. Feel lucky that Jacko is so willing and and so committed. I mean, I think we were here last night until 9pm or something [distant sound of Bielsa scoffing at their early night] and talking about tactics and adjustments, and what they’ve done and done well, and what we think needs to change and how we go forward. And he’s been fantastic.

So now read on, as we discover what new tactical joys Jesse ‘n’ Jacko have for of us. The end of man marking, mainly:

Well, certainly getting away from the man marking, trying to also, with the ball, create tactics that don’t expose us for transition moments as much. So, you know, the clarity of the tactical model — without going so deep into every little detail — it’s introducing important topics that I think the players — I can say it’s an intelligent group — that they can understand and put to practise. That has been what the focus has been this week, and then, you know, continuing for them to understand my personality and how we’re going to continue to move forward as a group.

These are the short term challenges. But I told them yesterday after training, that some of the things that we did in training, I’d worked with teams for six months and they didn’t perform the topics as well on the pitch as what this group has done in two days. So that’s a very positive sign. Very positive sign.

I’ve played against teams with man marking tactics, and what we’ve always tried to do is create counter movements and play behind, right? And this is now what you’ve seen the strategy has been for playing against Leeds in the last weeks. Obviously, the way we play, that won’t be as simple, it won’t be as easy, and we won’t rely on just one player to follow one other player. It’ll be more how we shift and adjust as a group, and still then come down to defensive moments that we can come up big.

I think that first of all, we have a lot of positional flexibility [in the squad]. In the long term, I think that will help us adapt in games and adjust. In the short term, I want to try to give them clarity on principles and tactics, and then clarity on strategies within the match, of what we’re trying to achieve. So let’s see. I mean, I’ve been working with one formation this week with them. I’m not going to say what that is. However, I’m trying to, step by step — I also had, you know, Leicester in mind in the last week, and trying to think about how to put a process in place to help the players adapt, and what it would mean for this game. And then we’ll have to go step by step through every game, and again, try to think about how to make complicated things as simple as possible, so that the players can execute.

Tactical discussions inevitably raised the subject of the team’s DNA — this is a Red Bull trained coach in 2022, so it’s gonna happen — then took us on a detour to a tractor factory in Milwaukee:

The thing that I loved about this team in the past is their fight, their ability to run for each other, to do whatever it takes on the day, no matter what the result was. This will have to remain a big part of our DNA. But certainly then, you know, I think modifying our tactics, having a clear understanding of what we’re trying to achieve, what our strategies are, the clarity to work as a group and not just in individuals, in certain situations, in transforming that tactical understanding and group mentality into something that will benefit us now and in the future. Those are the things that I think are important. But I think my ethos fits well with this club in this community, here in Leeds, right? I mean, even where I’m from, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it reminds me a little bit of what Leeds is. I come from a hard working family. My father worked in a factory for 32 years. I only know working hard and giving everything I have. That’s all I know. So I will do that here, I promise that, and we will make sure that when we step on the field, that that’s what we show.

Someone in the audience sniffed good background material for their article, and asked for more about Jesse’s dad. It turns out that working hard isn’t all he knows, because the main thing he took from his dad was actually ‘work/life balance’:

My father’s balance between hard work and enjoying his life is as good as anyone I’ve ever known, and I think that that’s what I’ve learnt the most from him. He was very clear to me when I was young what hard work was [chuckling], very clear. [Journo asks where he worked] He worked in a tractor factory called Case Tractors for 32 years, and he worked on the assembly line. But he was also an incredible hard worker. He was innovative. He did things like build houses, and he accomplished. My parents got married very, very young, because of me. [chuckling] Okay, so my mother probably would not want that information out there. But you know, they fought for everything their whole lives, to try to achieve and succeed. And they have. And so I think my work life balance has always been pretty good. Like, I know how to work really hard, but I also know how to enjoy the people around me. And so, you know, we will do that here. You know, the past three days have been fantastic.

He did add that, in the last three days, all he’s seen of Leeds has been the training ground and the hotel. But it sounds like the hotel staff are treating him with the right Yorkshire mixture of welcoming and stand-offing:

The people I’ve seen at the hotel, they’ve all come up to me and said, ‘Listen, man, we want you to succeed, we want you to do well. Obviously, it was hard to say goodbye to Marcelo, but we love this club. We’re so happy to be in the Premier League, but you know, we’re behind you, do everything you can.’ So my message is, I’m here for all the right reasons. I’m not here for myself, I’m here for this club. I’m here to work within a club atmosphere to maximise the potential of everything we do every day, and I’m here to enjoy the process with the fans as well.

He’s conscious, too, of the stigma about Americans in football, and says he understands the reasons behind it:

I can understand that they don’t think that we have the experiences that can be created here in Europe. Frankly, they’re right. I mean, it was the reason I came to Europe. It was the reason I learnt German. It was the reason I tried to adapt to new cultures.

He’s had a good self-referential joke ready, too, despite never seeing Ted Lasso:

Yeah, I think there’s probably a stigma. I’m not sure Ted Lasso helped. I haven’t watched the show, but I get it. I get it. Like, people hate hearing the word soccer. I mean, I’ve used the word football since I was a professional football player.

All I can say is the only way I know how to do things is to go all in, to give everything. I have to believe in who I am, to believe in the people that I work with, and to try to maximise what we are every day. And I find, if you can do that effectively, that you can be incredibly surprised with the human spirit and what you can achieve. So that sounds like Ted Lasso, I think, from what I’ve heard.

I would like to reassure Jesse of one thing, if I may: in this corner, at least, he will receive no hate for the word ‘soccer’. It is a fine English word derived from the name of our sport, association football, and the rejection of it as somehow American — it isn’t — is a very recent trend. Go back and you’ll find this club’s greatest players and managers — John Charles, Don Revie, Billy Bremner — quite happily and unselfconsciously talking about soccer. I may still be devoted to Marcelo Bielsa, Jesse, but on this I will stand with you.