Leeds United and Jesse Marsch is not working - The Athletic 24/10/22
By Phil Hay
The vibes from the Elland Road boardroom are transmitted by
the programme column of its chief executive and this weekend, Angus Kinnear was
looking for solace in the Premier League’s season break for the World Cup.
That, he said, would let Leeds United “return in December to
build on a firm foundation” and if it sounded like a club limping through a
storm then the game that ensued reiterated that message.
A firmer foundation in December would be nice but any sort
of foundation here and now would be good. —.
Jesse Marsch, their head coach, wants to mastermind the
fightback but in the stands and in the streets, there are fewer and fewer
people who see this ending well for him; few who think he is not part of the
problem. It went sour for him at Leicester City last Thursday, with vitriol
that sounded like the point of no return for a manager.
The away crowd was lost and parts of the home crowd followed
on Sunday as Fulham won 3-2 at Elland Road and made everyone look for the image
of a corner flag online. “The board and I are unified,” Marsch insisted and as
of last night, no one in a position of power was contradicting him.
Support for Marsch came quickly from the men above him after
Leicester, assurance that he would be in charge for Fulham, and he did not
speak on Sunday like a man who was done for.
These are worrying days, though, and days that threaten
severe consequences if results set in any more than they have. Dodging
relegation was a blessed relief in May but Leeds, through a summer of
substantial change and specific recruitment, have conspired to put themselves
in more trouble than they were this time last year.
The rapport between their ownership and their fanbase
declined in that time too and the disconnect grew wider as disillusionment
spread beyond Marsch and his players. Leeds had it and lost it and now, with
some urgency, the pressure for a reset is spilling over.
Kinnear argued that “false dawns and depressing defeats have
been outnumbered by redeeming performances and inspiring victories” for as long
as the current regime has been running the show. That might be accurate but it
is only true of the Marcelo Bielsa era and Leeds, either side of him, have been
devoid of alchemy with few exceptions.
Marsch fights on and Leeds are inclined to let him, trying
to resist a cycle of regular sackings. They must both suspect that the odds of
avoiding the inevitable are slim. In the league, Liverpool away is next, then
Bournemouth, then Tottenham Hotspur. Two points adrift of safety cannot be
allowed to get out of hand, however much thinking time the World Cup break
offers.
Leeds’ certainty in Marsch, in striking out to appoint him
in February, is matched only by the battle in trying to understand it.
Victor Orta, the club’s director of football, analysed
around 40 coaches across Europe, preparing for the day when Bielsa left, and
came up with the conclusion that Marsch was one of the best, the obvious
choice. Leeds tried to promote him as a smooth successor to Bielsa, a sensible
step from the Bielsa model, but as time goes on, there is no natural transition
to speak of and no likeness in methodology, apart from hard running, that does
not hold up as well now as it did under the man from Rosario.
The Fulham game, in some respects, was typical of the rut
Leeds are in. They got into Fulham, took the lead after 20 minutes and then
dropped off, conceding to an Aleksandar Mitrovic header. When it came to
winning the game at 1-1 in the second half, Fulham had the nerve to persist and
make it happen, working possession more effectively. Leeds did not look like a
side with a checkmate in them. “They’re a team with confidence and they find
ways to win,” Marsch said. “We find ways to lose. It’s painful right now and I
take responsibility.”
There was a carrot of sorts dangled in stoppage time, as Crysencio Summerville scored to turn 3-1 into 3-2 but many seats had emptied by then and a third Leeds goal would not have caused the concern in the air to dissipate. Marsch looked beaten at full-time, exchanging demoralised handshakes with Fulham’s bench.
He went around the pitch applauding the stands, inviting a
mixture of mutual applause and dissent. A ball appeared at his feet and he
booted it across to the West Stand touchline, something to take his annoyance
out on. Failing or not, it was hard not to sympathise with the loneliest man in
the ground.
The irony of Marsch’s team is that their attacking stats are
passable, good enough in theory to see them right. But actual goals are
limited, concessions are creeping in and there are, as anyone can see, tactical
flaws in what Leeds do.
Bielsa’s side knew how to play out from the back, how to
maintain patterns of play. Marsch’s side are engaged in a huge struggle to
connect defence to midfield and midfield to attack. Too often, they are forced
to bypass the middle reaches of the field and trust that chaos will throw up
chances. Fulham had it licked, spreading around possession freely when it came
to them and working the flanks. Leeds, towards the end of the first half, were
stuck in a cycle of driving long diagonals to Luis Sinisterra.
There were opportunities for it to be different, chances
that could have been taken, but Leeds are in a pattern. Aggressive, energetic
starts give way to more passive football, good moments go begging when the
ascendancy is theirs and frenzied intensity lacks the control needed to cut
through.
It creates a formula for teams playing against them: draw
the sting, douse the initial bursts with water and then look to hit back.
Andreas Pereira ran Fulham’s midfield, encouraging them to attack with
ambition. “We were the best team on the pitch,” said Fulham manager Marco
Silva, and genuinely they were.
Marsch’s system is the one he trusts, the system he believes
in despite the lie of the land. Leeds’ limitations are increased by the absence
of a dependable No 9, though he refused to get into the failure to sign one in
the summer by saying he did not want to “start playing hindsight or throw
anyone under the bus. I’m looking at myself”.
Chants of “sack the board” fed into the same question. There
is scepticism about Marsch but not only about him and the club’s next move will
be everything. Leeds, incredibly, are faced with as big a test of judgement as
they were when it came to sacking Bielsa. What happens next could define the
year.
The middle of August, the week after a swashbuckling victory
over Chelsea, stands as Marsch’s zenith, the only time when Marsch and Elland
Road were, indisputably, as one. The eight games that followed led the jaws to
close again, suffocating the club, squeezing that burst of exuberance out of
them and bringing about last week’s moments of reckoning.
This, sadly, is not working. It would take a leap of faith on
the part of Leeds to convince themselves that it will.