What Tyler Adams will bring to Jesse Marsch’s Leeds United, by those who know - The Athletic 11/7/22

Phil Hay and Paul Tenorio

“I won’t mention the other guy’s name,” Mike Grella says, “but this is how it went.”

Grella is thinking back to one of his earliest memories of Tyler Adams, to the days when Adams was a slender and diminutive midfielder finding his way in professional football. The story comes from New York Red Bulls’ dressing room, where Grella and Adams were team-mates for a while.

“The day I’m talking about, one of the older guys in the locker room challenged Tyler over something, speaking his mind, no holding back,” Grella says. “Tyler would have been 17, maybe 18, and to look at him he was nothing, like a young kid. This other guy was so much more senior.

“It starts as an argument. Then it turns into a squabble. Then it gets really physical and turns into a fight. And Tyler, he beats this guy up. He takes him on and stands his ground which is a big thing to do because when you’re a young player in the locker room, you can’t just do that any time you like. I remember his reaction because it made me think, wow, he’s got that in him.”

It was the element of surprise and in many ways it still is because in Adams’ company, there is no sign of a nasty streak. He is personable and likeable with a glowing smile, but that disguises his feisty edge. People say the same of Jesse Marsch, the coach he is about to work with for the third time in his career. Marsch has a charismatic air, but in the States they tell tales about the fist-fights he engaged in as a player, the reluctance to ever back down. Their personalities are similar — or so it seems. “But I’m more competitive,” Adams tells The Athletic. He is only half-joking.

Last Wednesday, Adams signed for Leeds United in a £20 million transfer from RB Leipzig. Leeds were lacking a central midfielder after selling Kalvin Phillips to Manchester City and from the moment the links between Phillips and City sprung up, Adams was touted as the target Marsch would make a beeline for. They had history in New York and also at Leipzig and there is probably no player Marsch understands better. There is no player out there who knows more about Marsch’s football than Adams. Adams is the 15-year-old who Marsch saw for the first time and came away telling himself that “this kid is going to be massive”.

So many people remember that period, when Adams was in the Red Bull academy ranks and making coaches around him talk. Grella, a former Leeds striker who was on the books in New York between 2015 and 2017, was slightly mystified to see someone so young moving into first-team training sessions, clearly ahead of the curve but oddly out of place. “From what I was told, he was missing a year of high school to play football,” Grella says. “In England that’s totally normal — it’s what the best kids do — but at that time it was unheard of here. Nobody left high school to go after a career in pro football, not in the States. It just wasn’t what you did.

“So I see this kid with a clever little smile, so thin and so young. I’m thinking, ‘He’s nuts. What does he think he’s doing?’. He wasn’t that tall and he wasn’t super strong. There was nothing about him physically which explained why he had jumped to that level so fast. But he spent a couple of weeks with us and by the end of those two weeks, I could see it: maturity, fearlessness and all the things Jesse needed to accomplish the things he set out to accomplish. A lot of guys sell themselves as fearless when they’re not because it sounds good. Tyler really was.”

When he joined Leeds from Leipzig, Adams’ first task was to go through standard pre-season testing and monitoring, the same as every other one of the club’s players. He knew the drill and he followed the programme but there was an impatience on his part to get going quickly. “Just let me train already,” he laughed and he has been that way since his early teens, the grafter who Marsch relates to and recognises. “Tyler’s a little bit of an old soul,” Marsch said. “He has a really good mix of being young at heart, of enjoying life, of showing up every day and having a smile on his face but being very serious about his work.”

John Wolyniec managed Adams in New York Red Bulls’ reserve team and was also responsible for bringing him out of the club’s academy. Adams was the first player to sign up for New York Red Bulls II when the second string was launched — a success story everyone wanted to make the most of.

“That was important,” Wolyniec says, “because he was pretty much identified through all the youth programmes and he was in the academy a year before he qualified age-wise. That was a really big deal to have him sign that contract.

“Some of the things that hit me early were his professionalism at a young age, and his intensity. I had conversations with his dad, who was a teacher, and his dad would say, ‘It’s hard for me to keep up with him’.

“Usually people tell stories like, ‘When I was 14 or 15 years old, you’d have to yell at me and kick my butt to get out on time’. He (Adams’ dad) would tell stories about Tyler having his bags packed, his cleats (boots) cleaned, sitting by the front door, alarm clock off at six o’clock, almost pushing his dad to leave early because he wanted plenty of time to prepare. He’s ahead of his time in that sense and you always knew it. That stuff tends to win out: the mental focus, the drive.”

Marsch, New York Red Bulls’ head coach, took to him instantly, engaging Adams and his parents in discussions about the midfielder’s future career. He pushed for Adams to receive his first professional contract in 2015 and by the time Adams was 17, consideration was being given to handing him the ultimate responsibility in the dressing room. “We used to have conversations in New York about whether we make Tyler the captain at 17, 18 years old,” Marsch said in an interview with The Athletic last year. “Everyone talked about his potential as a leader.” The same discussions were had at RB Leipzig, who Adams signed for in 2019 after making his name in Major League Soccer.

Adams, now 23, remembers the first proper meeting he had with Marsch, in the latter’s office in New York. “It was me, him, my mum, my dad having a conversation about what I wanted from my career and how best I can accomplish that,” Adams says. “He looked at me and said, ‘These are the things you need to do, but we think you fit the mould of our style of play’. He gave me my first opportunity and you can never thank enough the person who gives you the first opportunity to get your foot in the door and make a real impact.”

Around a third of Adams’ senior appearances have come with Marsch as his head coach. Nothing in that time has made one or other of them think that the partnership is in any way detrimental. Adams’ international prospects with the USA have flourished. He finds himself now in the Premier League, the competition he aspired to reach when he was growing up in the States. Marsch, after a tough start at Leeds, needs talented and dependable allies in his squad; a squad built in his image.

“Jesse’s system is all about selfless work, energy, covering ground and being nasty when you have to be,” Grella says. “Tyler’s got all of that, so naturally Jesse liked him a lot.” Is that nasty streak really there? “Oh yeah, he has it. He demanded respect, not with his mouth but with what he did; not by what he said. I’d look at some of the tackles he’d go into and think, ‘Woah!’. I’m not that sort of player — big tackles weren’t my game — but it was no problem for him. He never got an easy ride, though. If something wasn’t good enough, Jesse was onto him about it. It’ll be the same at Leeds. If it’s not right, he’ll know.”

“When you’re around Tyler, you see him as special,” Wolyniec says. “Once Jesse started to get to know him and like him, they always had a bit of a rapport. They’re similar in a sense. I’d never compare Jesse physically to Tyler (as a player) but they’re very motivated and very driven, with personality; up-front, competitive guys. And at times, they banged heads a little bit.

“Even Tyler as a young man, he gave you some push-back for anything he thought was necessary. Jesse loved it. Jesse’s a guy who loves a little bit of a battle, even if it’s of the minds. I mean, it wasn’t a secret that Tyler’s not quiet. He has a presence. If you got something wrong, he was going to let you know. A lot of players, they just listen to you and don’t want to say too much. But he was going to hold you to account, even as a staff member.

“There were a couple of times that Jesse had to have him in his office and say ‘Listen, I respect the hell out of you but sometimes you need to calm down. You can’t always have these conversations on the field. We can have them here in the office’.

“I just think it was a young man finding himself on a daily grind with older men. There’s a big transition from the academy, where he always started, always played, always played the position he wanted. Now it’s a little bit different and maybe not going so easily. It was never contentious but there was always some friction — good friction that usually led to being competitive.”

Adams took the attitude that he was “never going to be the finished product until the day I retire” and Marsch would drill that message into him too. “Jesse had a lot of praise for me but he also knew how to put me in my place, to humble me and make me understand that there’s always more to accomplish,” Adams says. “I think that’s why I respect him so much as a person and a coach.

“As much as he’s going to give praise, he’s also going to tell you when to be better and what to work on. Having someone who’s trying to help and develop you is someone you want in your corner. You know when he’s yelling at you it’s the best for you because he wants to get the best out of you. He has that side to him — don’t let him fool you, but he’s a great coach.

“There was a game (New York Red Bulls) had on a Saturday and afterwards, he gave us two days off, Sunday and Monday. He did that because he wanted to go to Europe to work on his coaching licence, to push himself up to the next level. As a player I think you have to have someone to look up to as a role model. You want to look at your coach and think ‘I want to work as hard as them, if not harder’. I always thought he’d get an opportunity to do something special in Europe. I could tell immediately that he had aspirations of bigger things than New York Red Bulls.” Which is equally true of Adams himself.

Rumours linking Adams to Leeds had been circulating from the end of last season onwards but three weeks ago, with Phillips preparing to join Manchester City, the interest from Elland Road became serious. Sources close to his £20 million move from Leipzig say Marsch was highly influential in pushing the deal and engaging with Adams once it became clear that Phillips was moving on.

Adams felt frustrated with a lack of game time at Leipzig and wanted more minutes with a World Cup coming later this year and places in the USMNT squad up for grabs, but according to staff who watched him train in Germany he was never disruptive or difficult. Leipzig respected him and used him regularly in media and sponsorship campaigns, regarding him as a good ambassador.

There is a tradition in football that coaches and players avoid becoming too close — an unwritten rule about the dividing line that usually sits between them. To listen to Adams and Marsch talk about each other, they sound like good friends, despite the 25 years separating them. “It just goes so far back between us,” Adams says. “I was in the academy (in New York) from 11 until I signed my first contract at 16 and up until then, I was never super close with any of my coaches. I never had amazing relationships with any of them.

“I always wanted to keep my football as my football and my coaches conversations as my coaches conversations. But then I signed with the first team and saw the environment Jesse had created. It helped you gain a sense of trust with the coach and the person he was. You got to know him on a personal level and to understand that, actually, he’s not so much different to you.

“You’re trying to reach your own goals and he’s trying to reach his goals. He had the experience of being a past professional too so he understood that maybe breaking the mould of players not having a close relationship with a coach is important for success. He’s found that successful for him and he’s helped me grow as a young man.”

Of Leeds’ six signings in this transfer window, three have prior experience of playing for Marsch — Adams, Rasmus Kristensen and Brenden Aaronson. Marsch is especially familiar with Adams and it did not surprise Wolyniec to see the partnership restored once it became clear that Leeds were in the market for a midfielder and Leipzig were ready to let Adams go.

“I’m sure Jesse’s going to continue in some iteration of his pressing style, that high-pace style,” Wolyniec says. “He knows Tyler is used to it, he knows that Tyler gets it, and he thinks that Tyler will become a leader. Jesse’s not just going to want the player for the player. He’s going to want all the other stuff that comes with it too — the other intangibles. The risk is certainly worth it for all the things Tyler brings to the table.”

Marsch’s appreciation of Adams poses an obvious question of Grella: was Adams regarded as Marsch’s favourite when they were in the dressing room together in New York? “No, not at all,” Grella says. “It wasn’t like that. Jesse’s great with people but I don’t think he has favourites. He just has people he respects and people he wants to support and help get better.

“The oddity of football (in MLS) is that in any one locker room you can have guys earning a couple of millions dollars a year and guys earning 80 thousand. To him, everyone was accountable in the same way and everyone had to be on the same page. It made no difference who you were.

“But if you listen to Jesse talk about football, about how he wants his teams to play and the characteristics and attributes he looks for, you get a clear picture: commitment, energy, selflessness, the ability to be a bit nasty. Put them all together and the player you find, or the player it describes best, is Tyler Adams. So maybe by default Adams is his favourite sort of player. But that doesn’t mean he won’t get pushed twice as hard.”