Andrea Radrizzani bucking Leeds United trend Marcelo Bielsa and Howard Wilkinson could not outrun - YEP 25/10/22

Leeds United are winless in eight consecutive Premier League matches but head coach Jesse Marsch is expected to remain in charge for this weekend’s fixture against Liverpool

By Joe Donnohue

Two months on from victories against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea, when Leeds threatened to become a runaway train, steam billowing as Kalidou Koulibaly saw red at Elland Road, the Whites are still looking for a third league win of the campaign.

It is now more than 60 days since Leeds tasted victory, after United fell to a 3-2 defeat at home to Fulham last weekend, although 29 of those were spent waiting for a fixture due to the Queen's passing.

Crysencio Summerville’s stoppage time strike proved nothing more than scant consolation at Elland Road on Sunday as Leeds slipped into the relegation zone. United’s winless run stretched to eight games but head coach Jesse Marsch struck a defiant tone post-match, insisting assurances had been provided by the board of directors during the short period between the full-time whistle and his briefing in the club’s media suite, that he was still the man for the job.

By opting not to take decisive action, Leeds are in essence, doubling down on their backing of the charismatic American coach whose choice as Marcelo Bielsa’s successor now comes under increasing scrutiny, just eight months into his tenure at Elland Road. Marsch and director of football Victor Orta were said to be in close contact for two years prior to his arrival in West Yorkshire; the Leeds supremo enamoured by Marsch’s success with New York Red Bulls and FC Red Bull Salzburg in the United States and Austria, respectively.

The image of Orta enthusiastically gesturing towards the club’s head coach at Brentford on the final day of last season emphasised the Spaniard’s faith in, and fondness of, the man he perceived to have saved the club from an ignominious relegation. Currently, it is that same man whose football has delivered a meagre two points from the last 24 available. Leeds are heading in one direction, and fast.

Majority shareholder and club chairman Andrea Radrizzani was at Elland Road on Sunday as chants of ‘sack the board’ reverberated around the stadium during the second half and at full-time. Chief executive Angus Kinnear was approached by supporters in the car park following the game, fielding questions over the club’s, and Jesse Marsch’s future. Leeds’ board are by no means novices in the world of football directorship and have previously taken difficult decisions in relieving managers of their duties. This is Italian businessman Radrizzani’s fifth year as Leeds chairman, meanwhile CEO Kinnear has previously held boardroom and directorial positions at West Ham United and Arsenal.

Revered coach Marcelo Bielsa was sacked after a six-match winless Premier League run earlier this year with the threat of relegation a very real possibility, while Thomas Christiansen was also shown the door by Radrizzani after a run which saw Leeds go winless in six consecutive Championship games between December 2017 and February 2018. Marsch, on the other hand, is expected to be in the dugout at Anfield this weekend, where if Leeds fail to take all three points, his winless run will extend to nine matches. Not since George Graham in August 1997 has a Leeds United manager gone nine league games without victory.

In the interest of parity, Howard Wilkinson, widely regarded one of Leeds’ best-ever managers along with Don Revie and Bielsa, was relieved of his post in September 1996 after nine consecutive Premier League games without a win. Marsch’s crowning achievement as Leeds boss has been securing survival last season, an accolade somewhat incomparable to the accomplishments of Bielsa or Wilkinson.

The 2022/23 campaign was supposed to be a blank canvas in which Marsch could apply his brush strokes without the imminent threat of relegation, such were the conditions upon taking the job in February. But, failure to build on the promising start to the season has led the American down an all too familiar path; one which leads to anxiety-ridden single-game showdowns. When the club reinvested £100 million from the sales of Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha, largely into players previously coached by Marsch, or suited to his preferred style, the expectation was that Leeds would not find themselves in a relegation mire three months into the new season.

The club are two points worse off than they were at the same stage last year, and this time a treatment room resembling Grand Central Station cannot be blamed – seldom have Leeds been affected by simultaneous injuries to key players this season. Victory over Liverpool this weekend, however, as improbable as it may seem, would buy Marsch yet more time to convince he and his team are up to the task, at least for another week or two.

There may be an element of awkwardness among Leeds’ key decision-makers which has led to the perceived inaction, that the man appointed to succeed the club’s most successful manager in recent history is struggling, so soon. Their judgement, as ever, will be reflected in results. By keeping Marsch in his post, fighting on as questions mount, Radrizzani and Kinnear are bucking the trend they set with the sackings of Bielsa, Christiansen and Paul Heckingbottom.

Save for a remarkable turnaround, which would have to begin with a victory over Liverpool, it feels increasingly as though this could be the end of the line. Club ownership have acted decisively before, suggesting there is method to their current approach, but in a results-first business like the Premier League, further winless contests will render patience in short supply.