Jesse Marsch’s Leeds showing promise at set pieces after coaching switch - The Athletic 20/8/22
By Phil Hay
The day after Leeds United’s pre-season friendly against
Brisbane Roar in July, Jesse Marsch made a small change to his training plans.
The quality of his team’s throw-ins during those 90 minutes had frustrated him
and several players were put to work on making better use of them.
Marsch had long been of the view that set pieces were there
to be perfected and though throw-ins were never likely to lead to a constant
flow of goals, he put pressure on his squad to be less sloppy with them. Over
the years, people who watched Marsch coach noted how big a part dead-ball ideas
played in his philosophy. It was one of the things he promised to bring to
Leeds when the deal to appoint him was done in February.
The club do not have a specific set-piece coach but this summer,
Marsch assigned the job of planning them to Mark Jackson, Leeds’ former
development squad boss and a man with a reputation for attention to detail. The
setup of the backroom team at Elland Road gives everyone a specific duty: Rene
Maric, Marsch’s assistant, focuses on analytics, Cameron Toshack is responsible
for one-to-one sessions on and off the training field and Jackson, alongside
other jobs, is tasked with implementing routines at set pieces. Already, drills
from corners and free kicks are having an effect.
Set pieces can be an unfashionable aspect of football and Marsch’s predecessor, Marcelo Bielsa, paid very little heed to them. Bielsa focused heavily on open play and liked matches to flow, devoting limited time in training to dead-ball situations. Marsch, in contrast, has made them a routine part of his sessions and on the day of the week when Leeds reduce the intensity of training to its lowest level, it is not unusual for them to devote all of their time on the grass to rehearsing moves. Marsch and Jackson are both on hand, watching the pieces fall into place.
In their two games this season, Leeds’ focus on that aspect
of the game has shown signs of paying off. They have produced 10 efforts on
goal from set pieces, bettered only by Everton. Those chances produced 1.41
expected goals (xG), bettered only by Arsenal. A well-worked corner yielded
their second goal at Southampton on Saturday and their approach to dead balls
looks like yielding marginal gains.
It was not the case that under Bielsa, Leeds never scored
from set pieces. Last season, almost a quarter of their 42 league goals came
from dead-ball positions but corners and free kicks were not things Bielsa hung
his hat on or fundamental to the success of his tenure. Leeds, with him as head
coach, were consistently creative in possession until their form dissipated in
his fourth year in charge. Marsch’s approach to open play is to use pressing
and vertical passing to open up defences but he has a reputation for trying to
maximise returns from set plays, going back to his days as a coach in the
States.
Jackson was promoted by Marsch from the position of
under-23s coach last season, joining the first-team staff in the week after the
American was appointed. His input in the final 12 games convinced Marsch to
keep Jackson alongside him this term, though Jackson’s responsibilities have
changed slightly. “I’ve switched Mark Jackson to be a set-piece coach among
other things,” Marsch said. “He’s put a lot of work into the organisation of
what we’re doing. He’s invested in the guys, the guys have invested in him in
that role and I think you can see the rewards of that.”
Statistically, set pieces can be important and decisive. Of the 56 goals scored in the Premier League this season, a fifth have come from dead-ball moves. Leeds were particularly busy from corners at Southampton and when Rodrigo scored on the hour, giving the club a 2-0 lead, his finish came from a move which Marsch’s side had been trying to nail throughout the game. A similar scenario should have led to the opener before half-time.
Leeds, like many sides, use signals at corners to indicate
the type of delivery that is about to arrive. One arm in the air, for example,
appears to telegraph a cross to the near post. In some instances, they have
taken to placing two players by the corner flag — more often than not on
Saturday, Jack Harrison and Brenden Aaronson, one a left-footer and the other
right-footed — to provide the option of inswinging and outswinging balls. Every
set piece relies on a good-quality cross but Southampton struggled to negate
Leeds’ strategy, eventually succumbing to it after 60 minutes.
It is apparent that Harrison and Aaronson will be
influential, as will Rodrigo. Harrison’s service has been good and on top of
seven chances created from open play, he has created four from dead balls — no
other player in the Premier League has created more. Rodrigo’s movement in the
box, meanwhile, appears to be central to Jackson’s thinking, a target whom
Harrison and Aaronson can reliably aim for.
Southampton were very nearly caught out by a near-post run from Rodrigo midway through the first half on Saturday, failing to check his movement from a starting position in the centre of the six-yard box (see below). The nuts and bolts of the move are plain to see: Harrison and Aaronson both over the corner, Aaronson raising one arm before swinging the ball in and Rodrigo meeting it with a glancing header across goal. The flick found Dan James and Rasmus Kristensen at the far post and one of those players should have buried the chance. Instead, their failure to apply a clean touch gave Southampton’s goalkeeper, Gavin Bazunu, an easy save to make.
An identical plan was applied early in the second half, with Leeds 1-0 up through Rodrigo’s 46th-minute strike. Harrison delivered the cross this time, another outswinger, and Rodrigo repeated his earlier trick, taking up a standing position in front of Bazunu and then losing a zonal defence by sprinting towards the front of the box. His header from a difficult angle landed on the roof of the net but Southampton’s inability to read Leeds’ tactics were setting them up for another concession.
When Leeds’ second goal arrived on the hour, Rodrigo’s role was reversed — his positioning at the far post inviting a flick-on from somebody else. The team’s organisation in the box was a little different, starting with a train of players lined up behind the penalty spot, but Aaronson put the corner on the money again, finding Pascal Struijk near the front of the area. Southampton’s decision to place a marker close to the corner flag played Rodrigo onside, and Rodrigo was so near to goal that he could not fail to turn Struijk’s header in. The finish had been coming all afternoon.
The key for Leeds is clear communication about who to hit and which runs to make. Rodrigo’s involvement in set pieces was obvious in the club’s victory over Wolves a fortnight ago and beyond bringing the forward into the fold of their senior leadership group, Marsch and Jackson have tried to bring other qualities out of him too.
The following free kick was reminiscent of the tactics at Southampton, with Rodrigo starting central to deceive Wolves’ defence before outwitting them with an angled run. Harrison was able to find him with a good cross and Rodrigo should have made more of a headed chance, presented to him despite Wolves having every single player back to defend.
An earlier warning for Wolves had gone unheeded when Harrison’s left-footed free kick found another clever run from Kristensen. Kristensen did what Rodrigo was trying to do, slipping into a crowd of players in the middle of the pitch and then peeling away before Wolves could react, and Harrison’s cross forced Wolves’ goalkeeper, Jose Sa, to abandon his goal line and compete for the ball.
Sa’s late challenge on Kristensen might have led to a penalty on another day but irrespective of that, Kristensen’s header across goal exposed Wolves in exactly the way Leeds intended. On this occasion, a covering defender intervened to avert the danger.
Over time, the tricks up Leeds’ sleeve will register with other teams and it is safe to assume that with the benefit of two games to analyse, Chelsea will arrive at Elland Road on Sunday with a better idea of how Marsch plans to attack them from set pieces.
Chelsea have been a little prone to dead balls so far,
giving up 10 chances from them in their matches against Everton and Tottenham
Hotspur, but it will fall to Marsch and Jackson to continue being inventive and
giving Leeds an extra string to their bow.
Marsch once noted that more than 30 per cent of goals in
Major League Soccer stemmed from dead balls. His interest in them has not waned
since.
