<figure class="image"><img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-378887 size-full" src="https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Marsch_v3.jpg" alt="Marsch Leeds&apos;s American savior" width="1200" height="725" srcset="https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/04/Marsch_v3.jpg 1200w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/04/Marsch_v3-600x363.jpg 600w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/04/Marsch_v3-150x91.jpg 150w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/04/Marsch_v3-768x464.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px"></figure>
Jesse Marsch took over at Elland Road with a demanding task. Not only did Marsch take over a side in the relegation battle in a massively competitive league. He replaced a fan-favorite manager and battled a pre-existing stigma against American coaches in Europe.
On one hand, he replaced a manager that got Leeds back to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years. Marcelo Bielsa, who revolutionized Leeds in the English Championship, won the Championship in the COVID-impacted 2019/20 campaign.
In the club’s first season back in the top flight, Marcelo Bielsa coached the side to a ninth-place finish. However, a sophomore slump for Leeds followed. With the club struggling just above the relegation zone, Leeds sacked the Argentine.
Jesse Marsch appeared as the most likely candidate. However, it was always going to be a tall task to replicate the successes of Bielsa in his first three seasons. The first role for Marsch was, of course, to save Leeds from relegation. When the American took over, the odds stacked against him.
Leeds sat in 16th, two points above the drop. Plus, the two sides directly beneath Leeds, Everton and Burnley, had two games in hand. The West Yorkshire club gave Leeds a winless run of six games, which included five losses.
Yet, despite having managed just five games at the helm of Leeds, Marsch seems to have reignited Leeds. Two wins, two losses and a draw is not the perfect record some fans dreamed of. Still, it did create a six-point gap with the relegation zone.
While Burnley and Everton still have games in hand on Leeds, momentum is on the side of Marsch.
Here is how he is turning around the club after just five games.
<h3>Jesse Marsch: Leeds’s American savior</h3>
In the Premier League, the top teams are incredibly rife with talent. Clubs bouncing between the Premier League and Championship do not have the star power of Liverpool, Manchester City or Chelsea. Rather, clubs must find value in the transfer market and outsmart the opposition. Or, more bluntly, clubs like Leeds can beat the inferior clubs and survive against the big clubs.
That is where Leeds struggled this season. In 2020/21 Leeds beat the teams that finished in the bottom four eight times. Comparatively, Leeds under Bielsa had just three wins and two draws and one loss to the bottom four prior to Marsch taking over. It is a slight difference, yes. However, in the competitive nature of the Premier League, these games hold just as much importance as, for example, Manchester City against Liverpool. Albeit, this is for relegation, not the title.
<h5>Jesse Marsch’s style as manager</h5>
Managers often have a particular way to organize their squads. For Jesse Marsch, that means utilizing a 4-2-2-2, something he did during his tenure at RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg. Bielsa opted more frequently for 4-1-4-1, which cost Leeds dearly in Bielsa’s last two games, a combined 10-0 against Liverpool and Tottenham.
Fortunately, Marsch seems like Bielsa’s natural successor when it comes to Leeds. Had Leeds wanted to just survive in the Premier League, it could have sought the expertise of someone like Sam Allardyce or Alan Pardew. Jesse Marsch is meant to improve the side, not keep it afloat.
Therefore, when looking at Jesse Marsch’s offensive priority, it reflects the aggressive nature of Bielsa. <a href="https://talksport.com/football/1053804/leeds-tactics-jesse-marsch-ralf-rangnick-marcelo-bielsa-defence/#:~:text=Without%20oversimplifying%2C%20Marsch&apos;s%20tactics%20are,side%20in%20possession%20will%20remain.">talkSPORT’s European football expert Kevin Hatchard</a> says Leeds did not want to reform its plans for the future. Bielsa’s offensive-minded nature got the club to its current spot. Marsch, like Bielsa, will not sit back and hope for a draw. He wants all three points.
<blockquote>“Marsch plays that press, counter-press, work rate, attacking football. He won’t dig in and try to nick a point because he’s not capable of it. It’s not what he does.”</blockquote>
Therefore, it is no surprise that Marsch’s biggest results came when he sought out all three points.
<h5>A flair for the dramatic</h5>
In Jesse Marsch’s first two games leading Leeds, a pair of midtable teams put the Whites further into the relegation battle. However, two added time winners within six days of each other changed the complexion of this team and this season.
On March 13, it appeared Norwich’s Kenny McLean stole two points from Jesse Marsch and Leeds in the 91st minute. However, Joe Gelhardt bagged three minutes later to secure a dramatic, and invaluable, win against Norwich. That win stopped Leeds’s bleeding. Plus, it showed that Jesse Marsch could be Leeds’s American savior.
To bolster that feeling, a comeback win against Wolves came just days later. Trailing 2-0 at the half at Molineux, Jack Harrison and Rodrigo leveled the game inside four minutes of each other. A dramatic conclusion followed in the 91st minute. Luke Ayling slotted home the winner to provide Leeds’s second-consecutive win.
As commentator Peter Drury described it, this game was ‘transformational’ for Leeds. To quote Drury, it represented “Leeds from the dead.” Not only did Leeds come back from a helpless situation in the game, but Marsch put the club on track for survival via offensive prowess.
Also, it helps when a manager has the emotions that reflect the players when moments like this happen.
<div class="ck-youtube"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Jesse Marsch goes wild after last-minute winner! Dugout Cam | Leeds United 2-1 Norwich City" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H63762iSuvg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>
<h5>Embracing the American stigma</h5>
Despite the celebrations from Leeds fans from these two wins, they were not so quick to accept Jesse Marsch as manager.
Disregarding similarities to Ted Lasso, English fans of the sport often consider the American product subpar. With just a handful of player like Christian Pulisic or Weston McKennie breaking on to the world stage, Marsch acknowledges that there is reason to cast aside Americans on the English scene.
Marsch is just the third American to manage a Premier League side. Bob Bradley struggled leading Swansea City, while David Wagner had some success with Huddersfield before the two sides parted ways midseason.
Wagner is the most successful manager in Premier League history to call himself American. Albeit it is a small sample size. That being said, Jesse Marsch likely has the best resume of these three.
Based on his first handful of games, Marsch is working to change the stigma towards American soccer players and managers. He embodies his Argentine predecessor in terms of play style. He’ll hope to replicate Bielsa’s early success as this season concludes.
<h5>Gauntlet to close the season</h5>
If Jesse Marsch wants to tackle his goal as Leeds’s American savior, he’ll use the <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/clubs/9/Leeds-United/fixtures">remaining seven games</a> to solidify his spot as manager. These games are a daunting task of teams in the hunt for European competition.
Watford and Crystal Palace, both away from Elland Road, are winnable fixtures for Jesse Marsch. In the reverse fixtures of both, Leeds picked up 1-0 wins under the guidance of Bielsa. Marsch seeks a similar result, especially considering the three games that follow.
Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea are three opponents before games against Brighton and Brentford close out the season. While Leeds’s opposition have games in hand, Leeds closes out the 2021/22 campaign with a brutal stretch of fixtures.
Jesse Marsch may have struggled with RB Leipzig this season, but he could use the talent at his disposal at Leeds to pick up results.

Jesse Marsch is Leeds’s American savior from relegation

Is Jesse Marsch Leeds's American savior? Well, if two dramatic wins are any sign, he very well could be. He'll need to be for survival.

Jesse Marsch is Leeds's American savior from relegation - World Soccer Talk

<div style="text-align: center"><a href="http:\/\/view.picapp.com/pictures.photo/entertainment/football-chile-spain-fifa/image/9221633?term=spain+chile" target="_blank"><div><figure class="image"></figure></div></a></div>
With an unfathomable yet realistic possibility of an unceremonious exit from FIFA World Cup 2010, the Spanish national football team tussled with a Chilean side that has been one of the most impressive teams in this tournament thus far.&nbsp; Marcelo Bielsa, Chile’s manager, insisted on a positive approach with an indirect emphasis on flair that is usually reserved for their South American rivals Argentina and Brazil.
While Bielsa transformed an underachieving and underwhelming Chilean national team into a legitimate force in international football, he still has the lingering stain of Argentina’s 2002 World Cup disaster when, as Argentina manager, he failed to send La Albiceleste through the group stage for the first time since the 1970 World Cup when Argentina failed to qualify for that tournament.&nbsp; He stated his intention in the preceding press conference that his team would go out to win the match despite only needing a draw to ensure a place in the Round of 16, and through the first two matches, there was no reason not to take his word.
For Vicente del Bosque, his team improved dramatically as they notched a 2-0 victory against an overmatched Honduras team that looked grateful just to participate in this World Cup, but the building theme that the Spanish wanted to quash was the lack of finishing at those vital moments in the penalty area.&nbsp; Of the 63% of the possession Spain had against Switzerland, 34% of that 63% was in the Swiss final third, but they could not break through an obstinate Swiss defense.&nbsp; In the first two matches, Spain accumulated a staggering forty-six shots but only mustered eight shots on goal in each match.

Understandably, Fernando Torres has shown some rust because he is still recovering from knee surgery in April that cost him the rest of the Premier League season for Liverpool, but the chances he has wasted are uncharacteristic of his normally lethal nature up front.&nbsp; Torres, however, only shares the responsibility for these squandered opportunities, as his fitter and healthier teammates have also missed their chances.
Vicente del Bosque did not feel compelled to make significant changes to his starting eleven despite ruing their uncomfortable position in the group, the only alteration being Andrés Iniesta returning to the lineup after sustaining a hip injury against Switzerland in favor of Jesús Navas, who continually worked the right flank and wore down Honduran left back Emilio Izaguirre.
For Marcelo Bielsa, his three modifications were not due to choice as Carlos Carmona and former Villarreal midfielder Matías Fernández were suspended due to an accumulation of yellow cards, and Real Zaragoza striker Humberto “Chupete” Suazo simply could not continue as he has played a total of ninety minute in the past three months after fighting through chronic shoulder, thigh, and hamstring injuries.&nbsp; In their stead came Marco Estrada, Jorge Valdivia, and former Real Sociedad and Real Betis playmaker Mark González.
True to Bielsa’s word, Chile came out with a forward-thinking approach, and the South American rang the first warning bells when Jean Beausejour cut back a pass toward Mark González in the penalty area, but the ball was slightly behind González, and he could not fire a decent shot on Iker Casillas’ goal.
If Chile seemed to roll on as they have in this tournament, Spain could not adjust out of first gear.&nbsp; Their normal passing brilliance had yet to shine, a sign of the palpable nervousness they displayed in the opening twenty minutes.&nbsp; A moment of brilliance (or a moment of madness for the Chilean point of view), however, settled the growing jitters for the Spanish, and from that moment, Spain controlled the pace of the game as is their normal mode of play.
In the 24th minute, Xabi Alonso sent a long, hopeful ball down the left flank to a streaking Fernando Torres, and Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo sprinted to the left touch line to diffuse the potential threat, but Bravo kept it in play only for David Villa to latch on to it first-time from the left sideline forty yards into the open net.&nbsp; Many questioned Bravo’s kamikaze effort, but in the direction that Bravo ran, he could have easily kicked it straight out of play for a throw-in.&nbsp; Bravo’s mistake was in hooking his clearance back into play as he kicked it into the path of David Villa.&nbsp; With the Chilean defense closing in, Villa could not afford to take a touch to settle the ball if he wanted a shot at the open net, and his technical magnificence shined as he whipped a curling shot with his “weaker” left foot and bounced once and into the net.
Chile’s discipline frittered away throughout the match, including Marco Estrada’s sending off and crucial yellow cards for the two starting central defenders Gary Medel and Waldo Ponce, which will force all three players to miss their Round of 16 match against Brazil due to suspension.&nbsp; Ponce, in particular, could have easily seen red after he impetuously kicked Fernando Torres’ leg as Torres was about to throw the ball into play.
When Andrés Iniesta passed the ball into the lower right corner of the goal in the 37th minute to give Spain the 2-0 lead, Chile’s existence in this tournament fell into peril for the first time, as a Switzerland win against Honduras in the other simultaneous match would now mean a Swiss advancement.
Second half substitute Rodrigo Millar made sure that this scenario would not occur, as another patient Chilean buildup led to Millar’s shot at the D toward the right near post.&nbsp; The ball deflected off Gerard Piqué in the opposite direction, and Iker Casillas could not recover in time to readjust to the ricochet.
A 2-1 result favored both Spain and Chile, and for the rest of the match, both teams went into cruise mode, especially in the last fifteen minutes, when Spain knocked the ball around in the midfield and in their own third, and Chile more than obliged by not pressuring the ball whatsoever.&nbsp; As the mechanics of the tournament work, one cannot blame either team for their performance in the final half-hour, but for the fans at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, they had no sympathy as whistles of derision could be heard over the ubiquitous vuvuzela.
Spain won their group in a fashion that surprised many, but as Álvaro Arbeloa explained in the press conference before the Chile match, their Euro 2008 triumph did not wholly consist of the sparkling possession football that is synonymous with La Furia Roja. According to Arbeloa, Spain played a brilliant semifinal and final, but the quarterfinal penalty shootout against Italy and the last minute win against Sweden in the group stage showed that people tend to idealize the past
Spain is following that path in this tournament, as they are slowly raising their level as their journey in South Africa continues, and against a compact and defensive Portugal in the Round of 16, Spain must continue to be patient and develop a more ruthless attitude at goal because quality chances will be at a premium.&nbsp; The Iberian derby will reach fever pitch on Tuesday evening, and if Portugal decides to open up their play, this match could be one of the most riveting occasions of FIFA World Cup 2010.

Spain Effective If Unspectacular As They Win Group H in FIFA World Cup 2010 - World Soccer Talk

Spain Effective If Unspectacular As They Win Group H in FIFA World Cup 2010

Latest news from Marcelo Bielsa. Find out about all the news related to Marcelo Bielsa on worldsoccertalk.com

ALL POSTS TAGGED "Marcelo Bielsa - Page 2"

Leeds United

Jesse Marsch is Leeds’s American savior from relegation

Andres Iniesta

Spain Effective If Unspectacular As They Win Group H in FIFA World Cup 2010