Ian Rush has claimed it was the right time for Leeds United to relieve Marcelo Bielsa of his duties with the club sleepwalking into relegation.
Bielsa was replaced by Jesse Marsch, who took charge of his first game at Leicester City.
Rush has supported that idea but also stated that Bielsa should be remembered as one of the greatest Leeds managers of all time.
"In my column last week I mentioned that Marcelo Bielsa was on thin ice at Leeds and if he refused to change his strategy they would continue to lose games heavily,” the former Leeds striker told gambling.com. “And so it proved, with their 4-0 defeat to Tottenham being the final nail in the coffin.
"I always lament clubs when they sack a manager without having a clear succession plan in place so I must give credit to Leeds for having Jesse Marsch lined up as it seems they knew what they wanted even before the Tottenham game.
"Bielsa can be proud of what he achieved with Leeds United. To get them back into the Premier League was an enormous feat and he should be remembered as one of the club’s all-time great managers.
"The fans still love him and won’t forget what he’s done at Elland Road, but football moves pretty quickly and the time was right to cut ties."
While he made the point that the decision to replace Bielsa was the correct one, Rush believes the appointment of Marsch to be a risk given his lack of top-level coaching.
He focused on the defensive strategies of the teams around Leeds in the table when discussing the biggest short-term problem that the American coach needs to address.
"In all honesty, I don’t know much about Marsch, so it seems like a big risk to me to bring in someone without any experience in English football at this stage of the season with the situation Leeds find themselves in,” he added.
“That said, they seem to know what they want so that’s a good sign and I wish him the best of luck in the job.
"His biggest task from the off will be to shore up that defence. Their young goalkeeper, Illan Meslier, must be low on confidence after a string of heavy defeats, but the problem does not lie with him.
"It might not be pretty to watch, but Marsch has got to organise the defence first, make Leeds difficult to score against and build from there.
“That’s what Watford have done by bringing in Roy Hodgson – a very good defensive coach – and they’ve given themselves a bit of hope of staying up.
"Burnley are built on their defence and year-in-year-out they get themselves out of trouble. Until they get their best players back fit, Leeds need a defence-first strategy, so let’s see what Marsch is all about in the coming weeks."
We want to hear your thoughts, so LOG IN and leave your comment below
