Iraola, Corberan and how Leeds United want the head coach search to work - The Athletic 7/2/23

By Phil Hay

The closest Leeds United came to having two managers inside their training ground at one time was in 2015. As Uwe Rosler drove out, P45 in hand, Steve Evans was nearby, waiting to drive in and take the reins. It mattered not to Massimo Cellino, but staff at Thorp Arch were genuinely worried the pair would end up crossing paths.

Jesse Marsch did not sail quite so close to the wind, but the timing of him replacing Marcelo Bielsa last season was relatively tight. Bielsa was sacked on a Sunday morning and was still gathering his things the next day. Marsch flew to England on the Sunday evening and was careful to introduce himself to Leeds’ players only after Bielsa had left. Everyone was conscious of how it might look if one bumped into the other.

The point of the story is that Leeds’ last managerial appointment was many weeks in the making. The club knew they wanted Marsch, Marsch knew they wanted him and the only doubt in Marsch’s head was about whether replacing Bielsa mid-season was wise. Originally, they had spoken about him taking over when it finished. That was Marsch’s preferred scenario. But before he knew it, he was being asked to parachute in immediately and see off relegation.

Leeds monitor prospective head coaches in the way they do prospective player signings, trying not to go into that market cold, but in the wake of Marsch’s sacking yesterday, there was no prospect of a replacement appearing at the same speed as he succeeded Bielsa. Even last week, in the run-up to a no-way-back defeat to Nottingham Forest, Leeds were still telling themselves Marsch would come good. His repeated insistence that a corner was about to be turned was shared in the boardroom, albeit without the same conviction. Something about Forest spooked the club, convincing them the warnings of trouble ahead — warnings that had been sounding for many weeks — were worth heeding.

The next choice is upon them, then, and Leeds find themselves in a position where they want to apply haste and patience. So far into a Premier League season that is not in good health, a decision on Marsch’s successor cannot afford to drag. But there is time to work with, albeit limited, and Leeds’ intention to give themselves a little breathing space was underlined by the selection of a caretaker team for tomorrow’s game at Manchester United.

Any return of points from this week’s fixtures would be good, a bonus in the circumstances. Everton and Southampton come after the Manchester United double-header, though, and those scraps fall into the category of deliver or be damned; precisely the moment when the injection of new blood and ideas matters. Ideally, Leeds would like to have the process at the point of completion by the end of the weekend at the latest. They began targeting candidates yesterday afternoon and have continued to test the water today. Chairman Andrea Radrizzani was due in the country before Old Trafford.

Part of the reason they were able to move quickly with Marsch 12 months ago was that he was out of work and looking for it. Though he was technically on gardening leave after his dismissal by RB Leipzig, it was simply enough to manoeuvre out of that arrangement. The indications at this stage are that Leeds are targeting head coaches in work and anticipate the choice they settle on is likely to involve negotiations with the candidate’s existing club. Victor Orta is a known admirer of Marcel Gallardo, the former manager of River Plate where he took charge for eight years, but Gallardo is taking time out after leaving River Plate in October and would prefer his next job to start before a full campaign rather than in the middle of one.

One of the names interesting Orta is Andoni Iraola, the boss of Rayo Vallecano in Spain’s La Liga. Iraola is young at 40, the youngest coach in that division, but he has been in management since 2018 and his work at Rayo Vallecano has rapidly enhanced his reputation. Iraola could be classed as a disciple of Bielsa’s in the sense that he played under the Argentinian at Athletic Bilbao and watched Bielsa operate at close range. His own tactical style involves high energy levels and an aggressive press, but he is not wholly wedded to Bielsa’s methods. Asked by The Athletic in 2020 about Bielsa’s famous murderball training sessions, Iraola admitted he had never tried to mimic them, partly because he could not be sure whether his players would tolerate them like players did with Bielsa. “I use some of his drills,” he said, “but not these games.”

Rayo Vallecano are fifth in La Liga after beating Almeria last night. They have taken points from Barcelona and Real Madrid this season and their results, achieved with one of the competition’s smaller budgets, are doing Iraola’s name no harm. He was asked about Leeds after yesterday’s win but avoided answering the question directly. “Football belongs to the footballers,” he said. “We (coaches) are not so important. Players make us look better and I’m lucky to have players who are showing their level. If I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t be achieving anything. I’m clear about my role. They are the ones who are achieving this.”

Across Europe, there are countless managers who have come into contact with Bielsa, either as players or as coaches in their own right. Carlos Corberan is another, Leeds’ former under-23s boss who held a dual academy and first-team role under Bielsa at Elland Road.

Leeds grew to admire Corberan during his time with them and he was broadly considered an option after Bielsa’s dismissal last year, though the club had Marsch down as clear first choice. The Spaniard was imaginative and seemingly immune to fatigue. When I interviewed him for the Yorkshire Evening Post in 2019, a month-and-a-half before the end of Bielsa’s first season, he had already been on the touchline for 75 competitive matches that term, with the academy and senior squad. The development side he managed and improved found his ideas insightful.

Corberan’s first managerial post in England, at Huddersfield Town, saw him take the Bielsa playbook with him, but after a difficult first year, he dispensed with aspects of Bielsa’s tactics, strict man-marking for one, and built a team who made the Championship play-off final. The difference seen at West Bromwich Albion since he was appointed there in October has been huge: 11 wins from 16 matches and a surge into the top six. Leeds’ concern with Corberan was his lack of experience managing in a division as high-level as the Premier League. There was also no appetite on the part of West Brom to lose him and tonight, they nipped talk about him in the bud by extending his contract at The Hawthorns to 2027. No meaningful contact with Leeds had occurred prior to that deal being agreed.

Whichever way they go, Leeds hope their player recruitment over the past eight months will allow Marsch’s replacement to make hay and make hay quickly. Part of the rationale for sacking Marsch was that no one within the hierarchy at Elland Road believed the squad they had built, with numerous additions last summer and £70million-worth of additions in January, should be sitting 17th in the table, above the Premier League’s relegation places only on goal difference.

The club think they have the resources to be far more secure. What they lack is a head coach to match.