Next four days will determine how closely Leeds United will sail to the wind in relegation scrap - YEP 10/3/22

"Football is awesome," gushed Jesse Marsch yesterday as Leeds United finalised their preparations for Aston Villa.

By Graham Smyth

He's right, it is. Or at least, it can be.

There's a chance that at full-time at Elland Road tonight the 48-year-old's understanding of just how awesome football can be will be a little fuller.

It could be glorious pandemonium, if Leeds win. The stadium has produced noises and sights that overwhelm the senses, this season, even amidst Leeds' struggles. Beat Villa and it will be awesome.

Football can be awful, too. It can draw despair of almost inexplicable depths from you and feelings that are impossible to articulate to anyone who has no skin in the game.

Everyone at Elland Road tonight will have enough investment in the game, emotional or otherwise, to either leave them covered in goosebumps or crawling in their own skin, depending on how the result goes.

This one and the one that follows on Sunday against Norwich City are of a magnitude that needs no in-depth analysis or qualification. It is no exaggeration to say that Leeds could end the week breathing freely or gasping for air having been brutally winded.

Defeat by Leicester didn't take the wind out of Marsch's sails because the performance deserved more than the rest, but that kind of momentum is fleeting and a loss to Villa will stop everyone in their tracks. The positivity that has won him a measure of favour with fans will soon grate if it isn't backed up with something tangible, namely points. A loss to Norwich will send Leeds backwards, spiralling into genuine trouble and the land of hope - hoping that three teams will be worse, hoping that injured players will return and make a difference.

Four days was enough for Marsch to implement his ideas to an impressive extent and tentatively suggest that the direction of travel might be the right one. The next four days will determine just how close to the wind Leeds are going to sail.

In such circumstances, Elland Road comes into its own, like it did in the second half against Wolves or when Burnley visited. When the stakes and the tension are high the noise is all the louder.

Marsch knows he needs them and he knows that they know he needs them.

"I’ve heard from multiple people around the league - friends of mine that are coaches at other teams, and obviously from our players - that this is, if not the best, one of the best environments and fanbases, and most loud and energetic and supportive fanbases, in the league," he said.

"So we need them in these two games, I think everybody in the city knows that we need them. Everybody in the city knows that we need points and results and nobody wants to be satisfied with anything but being in the Premier League next year. This is a group effort. We have a one team city, let’s use it to make sure that we are creating momentum in our group and in our team so that we can achieve our goals.”

He's still saying all the right things and hitting the key notes but there's nothing else for it. Nothing else but positivity will do for Leeds at this moment and Marsch will have to keep beating that drum even if the worst transpires as this massive week comes to an end. He will know, though, that without results the words will ring hollow and there will be no echo for his positivity among the fans.

Right now, however, they're with him. The players are too. They have no option, either. When Andrea Radrizzani made the decision to sack Marcelo Bielsa and replace him with Marsch, the entire club had no choice but to throw themselves in with the new plan because relegation would kill all and any momentum built in the special years that have preceded this one.

Mercifully, the plan seems to have merit and a basis in reality. Marsch has recognised where the major weakness lay and moved quickly to strengthen the team, protecting them from the damage they were suffering so frequently in recent weeks, at Leicester at least.

Being more defensively solid won't be enough, it has to be married to a more efficient and ruthless attack than the one Leeds have been putting together, but it's a good place to start.

All and sundry have declared this Leeds team too good to go down, putting their faith in the Whites' quality to keep them up and looking at their fellow strugglers, that still feels about right.

If, come Sunday night, they've stopped saying it, then Leeds are bang in trouble.

If, come Sunday night, Marsch has four points under his arm, almost irrespective of how he gained them, that'll be just awesome.