Jesse Marsch showing there is life after Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United but not everyone is convinced by the change yet - Sky Sports 24/4/22
Jesse Marsch has delivered results but Leeds fans will need more if they are to feel that Marcelo Bielsa buzz.
Adam Bate
Against Norwich, Leeds concede a stoppage-time equaliser and
then go up the pitch and win the game all over again thanks to a goal from
their teenage striker. Elland Road erupts. This is vintage Leeds, a moment to
cherish.
At Wolves, the large travelling support see their team go
two goals down at the break but continue to cheer them on. An improbable
comeback is completed in the 91st minute, this time the long-serving Luke
Ayling, after a man-of-the-match display, is the hero.
Had these moments come during the reign of Marcelo Bielsa -
back-to-back stoppage-time wins in the Premier League for the first time this
century - they might have entered the pantheon of his greatest hits, lauded as
examples of El Loco at his best.
Instead, they were Jesse Marsch's first two wins as Leeds
boss.
As a result, the mood among supporters is rather different.
There is an unease. Some are happy to move on. They will say that the club is
bigger than any one person. Staying in the Premier League is the immediate
focus. Marsching on together and all that.
Others are reluctant to let go. They accept that there must
be life after Bielsa but that does not mean they have to love it, not just yet.
Expecting them to embrace it in the same way, to be imbued with that same sense
of purpose when they were all in, is a lot to ask.
This is the problem facing Marsch. If circumstances were
different those first two wins would have set the tone, ending debate about
whether his style of play would bring an end to the Elland Road run. Instead, there
has been chatter about the third win at Watford.
A 3-0 victory away from home, Leeds' biggest of the season,
sounds emphatic. But the manner of it has been criticised. It was a stuttering
performance, not their best of late, even by Marsch's own admission. It was
enough to leave some underwhelmed.
Leeds' passing accuracy at Vicarage Road was just 63.8 per
cent - the lowest in any game since their return to the Premier League. They
had fewer touches in the opposition box against a team outside the top two than
in any game under Bielsa.
For many in Leeds' situation, it was a classic away
performance. But the contrast with what came before it, what many Leeds fans
had come to believe in so totally, was vast. The most touches by Leeds in the
opposition box this season? Forty in Bielsa's final game.
They lost 4-0 at home to Tottenham.
Rob Conlon, writer at The Square Ball, the popular Leeds
United fanzine and podcast, accepts reservations about the style change but
takes a pragmatic view. "Ultimately, if we keep winning 3-0, nobody will
care what our passing accuracy is," he tells Sky Sports.
"In terms of what Jesse Marsch was asked to do when he
was hired, he has done an impressive job so far. There is an acceptance that
this season is all about staying up, and next season will be a fairer time to
judge the style of play.
"I have spoken to some friends who remain unconvinced
what the big idea is going to be beyond staying up this season - and I share
those reservations - but I think a lot of those frustrations are aimed more at
those running the club than Marsch himself.
"The difference in playing style is more jarring than
anything else, and it goes back to getting used to being involved in 'normal'
games of football that are evenly-matched and competitive again. We know
March's football is going to be more direct than Bielsa's.
"Still, those three-and-a-half years under Bielsa felt
like absolute magic - I know it sounds like cringeworthy exceptionalism, but
they were completely unique to us, so of course it feels like something special
has been lost."
Such is Marsch's predicament. He took this job with the
clear remit that there were problems in need of addressing. A team that had
lost four in a row, conceding 17 goals in the process, could not be allowed to
continue on that trajectory. He had to change that.
Conversely, he took this job with the clear knowledge that
Bielsa was a folk hero whose playing style had reinvigorated a city. Marsch
might save the club from the drop but Bielsa had saved the club's soul. Fans
still crave that feeling. He had to keep that.
Change too little and his presence is pointless. Change too
much and fans are left longing for what they have lost. It is not quite Brian
Clough's desire to 'win it better' than Don Revie but the need for delicacy is
already apparent.
There was a reminder of that when Marsch gave a radio
interview to talkSPORT after the Watford game. Asked about the club's injury
problems, he risked making some not so subtle criticisms, suggesting that his
predecessor's methods had been part of the problem.
"The injury issue had a lot to do with the training
methodologies. These players were overtrained. It led to them being physically,
mentally, psychologically and emotionally in a difficult place to recover from
week to week, from game to game.
"I have had a reputation for high running data, but
also having healthy, fit and strong players who can meet the standards in the
game that we want. I have tried to put that into place to help the players and
I think that has helped a lot."
Marsch was just being honest. Too honest, perhaps.
Most can accept the wisdom of quietly dropping the so-called
murder-ball training sessions every Wednesday, but those same supporters will
find it harder to hear public criticism of the coach whose genius carried them
to the Premier League in the first place.
Perhaps those sessions were counter-productive by the end.
But only after two pandemic-hit seasons and lifting some seemingly
Championship-level players to heights few had imagined possible. After
passionately defending Bielsa, it is a gear shift for fans.
"Marsch's overtraining comment rankled with me,"
says Conlon.
"I don't doubt the players were physically and
emotionally drained, but Marsch often talks about how the squad's mentality is
the best that he has worked with, and a huge reason it is so strong is because
they were able to survive what Bielsa asked of them every day.
"Marsch has benefited from being able to ease some of
that intensity, but still being able to rely on a squad that is responsible
enough to maintain those professional standards."
While Conlon says the comments were "a bit daft"
he knows they were also an exception. "Marsch has been really careful to
come across respectfully, and seems like a decent guy." The man himself
has since apologised. "It was a little bit careless," Marsch admitted.
It is a reminder of the challenge, the peculiar
circumstances at Leeds. Where the new manager is picking up points while people
in the old manager's home-town of Rosario in Argentina are picking up their
paper to see a full-page advert thanking Bielsa.
"We will never know what would have happened if Bielsa
kept his job," says Conlon. "If Marsch keeps us up, it will be a job
well done, but then there will be a lot more expectation next season to be
something other than a 'normal' Premier League club.
"What is the big idea?"
With a takeover long mooted, that answer might yet come. It
all adds to the mood of change at Elland Road. "It feels a bit like we're
stuck between two eras. If that takeover were to go through it might help
Marsch in drawing a line under what has gone before."
The love affair with Bielsa goes on. The new man can never
be him.
He can only hope that, in time, being Jesse Marsch will be
enough.