Leeds United have a new coach in Jesse Marsch. How did he fare in his debut against Leicester?

On Monday, the Leeds United management announced the arrival of new coach American Jeese Marsch, who replaced Argentine Marcelo Bielsa on the bench of the Northern England team. How did the American coach’s debut with the team from the north of England go?

The new coach

Forty-eight-year-old coach Jesse Marsch, a former player of the American MLS teams Chivas USA and Chicago Fire FC or D.C. United, is known in Europe mainly from the clubs playing under the Red Bull logo, i.e. RB Leipzig and FC Red Bull Salzburg.

In America, he started his coaching career as an assistant coach to Bob Bradley on the bench of the US national team. He then coached as head coach of the Montreal Impact and another club from the football family with the red bull in the emblem, the New Yourk Red Bulls.

On the European continent, he started as an assistant to current Manchester United coach Ralf Rangnick at German club RB Leipzig. He then went on to become head coach of Salzburg and most recently served this time as head coach at Leipzig.

Marsch therefore has experience mainly with American competitions, Austrian and German football, but he also sat on the Leipzig bench in the Champions League in the autumn. We’ll see how he fares on his rescue mission in the best league in the world, where he will be working under enormous pressure from fans and media.

The first game

Leeds United took on Leicester Foxes on Saturday. Compared to the previous home game against Tottenham (0: 4), which was still managed by his predecessor Marcelo Bielsa, Marsch made several changes to the line-up.

He changed the defensive back four, bringing in Luke Ayling instead of Diego Llorente in the stopper pairing with Pascal Struijk. At right-back, Stuart Dallas was just withdrawn from midfield in place of captain Ayling.

He made the midfield more defensive by adding Mateusz Klich to the forward pairing in addition to Robin Koch. Brazilian Rodrigo operated in front of them, replacing Adam Forshaw in the middle of the park. Raphinho’s wingers with Jack Harrison retreated more deep into the midfield.

So Leeds players clearly came into Leicester with more defensive duties than they were used to under the Argentine coach, who professed attacking football, as they started to play a 4-2-3-1 formation on the pitch compared to the 4-3-3 against Tottenham.

However, it must be said that the previous game was played at home by Leeds, whereas the game against the Foxes was played away. Therefore, it is possible that the American coach will prepare a more offensive line-up for some home games.

Anyway, the changes Marsch made paid off in terms of gameplay against Leicester. Leeds created more goal scoring opportunities and were more active.

He tried to attack especially on his right side through Raphinho and the Dallas defenders. However, despite his agility, Raphinh was not very successful in the match, especially in his efficiency as he took four unsuccessful shots at the opponent’s goal.

United players outshot their opponents 19 to 7 overall. The possession of the ball was even, but it was more in the attacking half of Leeds. However, the players from the north of England could not take advantage of this advantage. They lacked more composure and confidence in dealing with chances. The opposition goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel, was also excellent.

Productivity finally decided the outcome of the match, when in the 67th minute Harvey Barnes decided the victory of the home team Leicester.

As it can be seen, Leeds players did not forget to play football after a bad period, but they are probably lacking more mental well-being. New coach Jesse Marsch seems to realize this as well, and immediately after the game he called all the players into a circle on the pitch, where he apparently tried to motivate them for the next matches and strengthen their team spirit.

However, according to the club’s website, the coach was satisfied with the team’s performance and attitude after the game, noting that his charges deserved to win and saw the disappointment on their faces after the final whistle.

The game against Leicester was a promise of a better tomorrow for the Leeds club, but they still have a lot of work to do to save themselves. For now, they are in 16th place in the incomplete Premier League table (there are still games to play for Burnley, Watford and Everton). However, United’s nearest rivals in the fight to stay up are dangerously close.

Source: Leeds United, Transfermarkt, Who Scored, Premier League