Jesse Marsch’s Major Leeds Soccer: Softer approach, set-piece sessions and Elland Road bond - The Athletic 24/8/22
Phil Hay and Adam Crafton
Leeds United would not be so bold as to class this summer as
entirely plain sailing. It took until this morning for their new home kit to
hit the shops and eyes were rolling at Elland Road a few weeks ago when the
club learned that a cargo ship carrying merchandise out of Vietnam had spilt
several containers into the sea, threatening another delay.
Only at Leeds, or so they like to say, but hold-ups in the
production of shirts for this season have affected other teams besides them
and, all in all, the business of reasserting themselves in the Premier League
has come together almost as planned. Sunday’s demolition of Chelsea found Leeds
in their element, a club happy in their own skin again. Jesse Marsch is theirs
and, by the end of that game, fans in Elland Road were happy about it.
Marsch has a phrase he likes to repeat, one he first used
when he became head coach of New York Red Bulls in 2015 to the delight of no
one in particular: “Some people will like me, some people will hate me and as
every coach learns, that’s football.”
But in saying so on Sunday, he misread the groundswell of
approval around him. The question now is not whether Marsch has it in him, but
whether Chelsea was a fair and attainable benchmark and whether his team are
genuinely as good as they looked in that game. Quality football causes no
conflict of emotion. The murals of Marcelo Bielsa are proof of that.
When Leeds offered Marsch the manager’s job in February they
presented it as a two-part role, at least until he showed the longevity to take
the club beyond those stages. The final 12 games of last season were a matter
of survival — no more, or less — and all Leeds asked of him was leadership to
hold the dressing room together and prevent relegation. Emerge safely from
that, as he did, and this season would launch his tenure in earnest: a fresh
start with a new squad and the open expanse of a full 38-game campaign.
Andrea Radrizzani, the club’s chairman, appreciated the way
Marsch motivated the players and prevented the squad from splintering as the
walls threatened to close in. Now the expectation was that Marsch would truly
shine. Victor Orta, as he had with Bielsa, stuck his neck out by backing the
48-year-old for the job so heavily.
It was agreed in advance of survival that if Leeds fell
short and went down, Marsch would stay on. Leeds were all-in on his style, his
tactics and his suitability, even when their position in the Premier League
looked hopeless.
The journey from abject crisis to the sensation of the win
over Chelsea has been multifaceted — a combination of transfer business
matching Marsch’s requirements and the manager connecting with his squad
tactically and mentally.
Bielsa liked to keep the players at arm’s length and that
arrangement worked for him. Marsch prefers to get close to them, being softer
on the squad without being soft. His empathetic style is appreciated, not least
because of the stress the club were under last season.
Leeds were one of several clubs who spent part of their
pre-season in Australia. Manchester United were another. Manchester United’s
players and staff were asked to stick to strict curfews in the evening but
Marsch’s attitude was to tell his team that the line between fun and disrepute
was blindingly obvious and he preferred to trust them to stay on the right side
of it.
He admonished one player who missed a public appearance at a
supporters event in a way that quickly cleared the air. Leeds could feel his
tactics taking hold.
Over the past six months, Thorp Arch has become a world of
conversations, one-on-one chats, small group discussions and broader meetings
involving the whole dressing room. People who know Marsch well always describe
him as a natural communicator and his expansion of Leeds’ leadership group —
the collection of senior players who speak for the squad — created a stronger
link between him and them.
Marsch was ridiculed in public when it emerged he was using
quotes from historical figures, among them Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa,
as inspirational tools but his interaction with the squad went further than
that. He would encourage them to read books or newspaper articles written about
world-class athletes, to find out what made them tick or how they achieved
marginal gains, particularly when it came to stamina and fitness.
He tried to engage with those players who were not seen as
natural leaders, to make sure they felt valued.
Many one-on-one meetings were handled by his assistant,
Cameron Toshack, and the topics of conversation varied. Some focused on tactics
and technical improvement. Some had an aspirational tone, asking players to
think about where they wanted to be in five years. Some would challenge them to
think about how much of a life they had outside football; to place importance
on finding pleasure and fulfilment beyond the day job. The idea was to create
stronger personal relationships and an environment that was not entirely
fixated on business.
Marsch and Leeds agreed in advance what would happen in the
transfer market if they avoided relegation, setting themselves up to press the
button as soon as survival was assured. Marsch said recently that he considered
the club’s purchases to be “our signings” rather than his alone — deals done
collectively — but the targets Leeds chased were identified with Marsch’s
tactical model in mind, a strategy built around him.
Brenden Aaronson could press in short, sharp bursts, as he did to force the opening goal against Chelsea at the weekend. Tyler Adams would give the midfield industry — essential after the sale of Kalvin Phillips — and Marc Roca’s comfort on the ball would dovetail with Adams, complementing the American’s aggression.
Whatever the stereotypes of players from the USA, the rest
of the squad at Leeds felt self-confidence oozing from Aaronson and Adams when
they arrived.
Marsch began adapting training to make those signings work.
Bielsa’s strenuous sessions had created a squad with impressive stamina — on
Sunday, Leeds were able to outrun Chelsea by more than 10km, having already
recorded the highest distance covered of any Premier League side on the
season’s first weekend — but Marsch switched attention from distance to
intensity.
Much of the running in pre-season was tailored to condition
the players for his tactics, the hunting in packs that required rapid acceleration
on repeat. Drills were designed to provoke high-intensity sprints, to help with
pressing and counter-pressing.
For all that Bielsa’s shadow loomed large, Marsch was not
scared of talking about him. He would tell his side to take the character and
personality they developed under Bielsa and apply it to his own model. Set
pieces were practised daily and some sessions devoted to them entirely. Above
all, Marsch would urge his squad to make sure their football matched the
passion and fervour of Elland Road. That intensity was what forged the
connection between Marsch and the crowd on Sunday, the mutual desire to
intimidate Chelsea and steamroller them. Football like that was an easy sell.
The problem for Marsch as last season got out of control was
that Elland Road no longer caused fear — at least not to opponents. There was
passion and fervour but so much of it was channelled negatively, the
consequence of a frightening decline on the pitch. The rout of Chelsea told the
league that the crowd had his back and he had theirs. His inauspicious start
has been dramatically buried, the vicious tension of spring left behind.
When The Athletic interviewed Marsch in March, not long
after his appointment, communication and interaction were two of his
watchwords, the weapons he planned to use to his advantage. “Through those
channels, I felt I could refresh the air and let everyone move forward,” he
said.
And five months on, he has.
