Leeds United made headlines on Monday, when they fired the struggling Marcelo Bielsa and hired American Jesse Marsch, who is widely regarded as the best American manager in football. He will be trying to save Leeds from being relegated, with the club finding themselves 16th at the moment, just two points above Burnley in the relegation zone.
Marsch started his career as the first-ever manager Montreal Impact in 2012, coaching them to a seventh place finish in the 10-team in Eastern Conference of MLS. He had a break of three years before joining the Red Bull family as a manager, starting with New York Red Bulls, moving to Leipzig as an assistant to the current Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick before getting the top spot in Salzburg. There he won the Austrian Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup twice in two years, before going back to Leipzig last summer to replace Julian Nagelsmann, who moved to Bayern Munich. Leipzig released Marsch at the start of December, when Leipzig dropped down to 11th in the Bundesliga.
Leeds under Bielsa were a heavy counter-pressing team, and Marsch’s tactics fit that perfectly. He is another, counter-pressing coach like Bielsa and his old boss Ralf Rangnick. In fact, his struggles at Leipzig were attributed to a big change in the team’s playing style compared to Nagelsmann. He likes his team ultra-attacking, and scoring goals wasn’t problem during his time in Leipzig, but the defense was.
This doesn’t bring much hope for Leeds. They are last in in Premier League in goals allowed and expected goals allowed, and if Marscsh’s previous jobs have something to go off, is that he won’t improve Leeds’ situation.
Fans in Yorkshire are hoping, that Jesse Marsch will be the solution in keeping them up in the Premier League. But he won’t have an easy job to replace a club legend.
