Leeds United have won two and lost two of their opening four matches under Jesse Marsch. Marsch is coming up to almost a month in charge following his appointment at the end of February, taking over from the big shoes of Marcelo Bielsa, who enjoyed a great deal of success at Elland Road.
It has been a little Jekyll and Hyde so far under Marsch, though one particular statistic suggests that it is clicking well for Leeds in attack. The Whites are averaging an xG (expected goals) tally of 2.07 per game in Marsch’s four matches in charge, the most of any side in the Premier League.
xG is a metric that measures the quality of a goalscoring opportunity – the higher it is implies that a team is creating a higher volume of good chances. And Aston Villa aside, where they registered just one shot on target, Leeds have looked impressive in attack.
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In the first match under Marsch at Leicester City, Leeds were very unfortunate to come away with nothing in a 1-0 defeat, with a top quality performance from Kasper Schmeichel the difference between no points and three. Against Norwich City, too, Leeds left it late thanks to a goal from Joe Gelhardt, but could’ve been out of sight before Kenny McLean’s equaliser with Raphinha twice hitting the woodwork.
Leeds also struck the post on two occasions in the 3-2 win at Wolves, though the volume of chances created by the Whites following Raul Jimenez’s red card, meant they did enough to win the game. That certainly bodes well for Marsch, as when all of his key players come back into the side, Leeds may begin to climb the table.
