Through no fault of Jesse Marsch, Leeds United look ill-equipped for the fight of their lives - The Athletic 11/3/22

By Phil Hay

The banner was there, just as it had been before, on a grass verge by Leeds United’s ground. Gracias Marcelo. Messages originally designed to meet Marcelo Bielsa on his way into Elland Road serve the purpose of remembering him now, grateful to him in retrospect.

It was Leeds versus Aston Villa last night and as the streets filled up with a crowd trying hard to renew their faith, Bielsa was in London, about to fly out of Heathrow and home to Argentina. In different circumstances, Elland Road would have been his stage and his audience. Two weeks ago, it was. Left behind in his absence were people facing up to a void as big as they feared it might be when Bielsa left.

The end of one chapter, a chapter worth an entire tome in itself, was the start of another and there was healthy applause for Jesse Marsch as Leeds announced him to Elland Road before kick-off. The mood pre-match was as Marsch predicted it would be: full of love for Bielsa, which is not about to die out soon, but warm support of the new face in the dug-out. At that point there was no appetite for recriminations with a period as weighty as these four days looming. Eyes off the ball threatened to take Leeds down, or so the narrative went.

Acceptance, they say, is one of the last stages of grief and acceptance of what happened at Elland Road on February 26 — a 4-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur, bringing about the sacking of Bielsa which Leeds were actively discussing irrespective of the scoreline against Spurs — was bound to be tightly tied to results. Angus Kinnear, Leeds’ CEO, came as close in his programme notes as anyone at the club has to admitting that Bielsa was in line to be replaced at the end of the season regardless but the summer would have been an easier time to talk about moving on, fresh ideas or a change of direction. As it was, denying Bielsa what Kinnear called “an Elland Road farewell befitting his achievements” was a gamble on Marsch rapidly dragging Leeds out of their descent. A 3-0 pasting by Villa had them heading straight for the ground.

Leeds did not consider Marsch to be a punt as head coach because they have, very quietly, been following him and thinking about him for a long time, gradually moving him into first place on the list of the names who could one day replace Bielsa. Slick, polished and confident; Marsch had no problem holding his own in his first few press conferences but the beauty of Bielsa’s idiosyncratic and often fascinating media briefings was that, until the problems of this season developed, most of what he said was backed up by substance. Much of Leeds’ 16-year slog in the EFL seemed to consist of people conducting elaborate or not-so-elaborate bluffs. Bielsa taught the crowd to believe in promise again and to count on credibility.

Marsch had scored well at Leicester City last weekend; no points to show from the game, admittedly, but proving that his talk of quickly adapting a team’s shape and tactics was more than rhetoric. Villa was on a different planet and not in a good way; frayed round the edges, frantic, uncontrolled and a defeat that made Leeds look like a Championship side clinging to a Premier League place, fearing the worst. There were individual nightmares, collective disorder and the creep of another loss, brought on by goals from Philippe Coutinho, Matty Cash and Calum Chambers. One night in Leeds and Marsch was finding out what this club was like to manage for so long.

He had spoken before kick-off about a plan to contain Coutinho but the Brazilian was unmarked when his shot on 22 minutes flew in off the boot of Pascal Struijk as Illan Meslier stood waiting to collect it. Marsch looked to zonal marking to stem the tide of goals against but Leeds conceded three and Junior Firpo, flailing on ice all night until he was stretchered off injured near the end, was sleeping as Cash collected a floated crossfield ball on 65 minutes and drilled in a low finish. Chambers’ shot into the far corner on 73 minutes was a tipping point, provoking heated chants in support of Bielsa, early departures from the stadium and angry gestures towards the directors’ box where Andrea Radrizzani and Leeds’ other board members sat. There was only so much patience an imploding season could expect.

With Bielsa gone, the directors’ box was reduced to a lightning rod. Nobody was likely to turn on Marsch or suggest that 23 points from 28 games, 16th place in the table or anything leading Leeds into a deep hole was demonstrably his fault. Bielsa carried the can for the team but without him, it is left to others higher up the ladder to explain and answer for the fact that with 10 fixtures to go, Leeds look so ill-equipped for the fight of their lives. Impact from Marsch and a dramatic upturn in form is the only thing that can keep the peace. Leeds, somehow, are clear of the bottom three after six defeats in a row but two points is no level of protection and the days of assuming three teams will be worse than them are long gone. Results in these parts must be encouraging everyone else.

Bielsa was flying out over the Atlantic when Chambers scored and the loveable flow of his era felt as far away as supporters left in droves and the team traipsed despondently through the last few minutes. The next goal was as hard to see as the next win and the next win cannot wait much longer. Leeds will be back in the same surroundings on Sunday, for a game against Norwich City which offers no leeway or tolerance for anything other than the right result.

“I’m not going to sleep much tonight, I can promise you that,” Marsch said, coming to terms with the job on his hands. “I underestimated the stress of the moment from the players’ perspective. We’ve had a good 10 days but it was clear from the start that we lacked confidence and aggression.

“Fear will ensure failure. It won’t protect us from it. We have to be fearless and we have to go after opponents. That’s the biggest lesson for me.” Elland Road is starting to feel that fear, in horrible waves.