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.

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