Marsch’s future hangs in the balance
There is no ignoring the single biggest talking point coming out of last night. Jesse Marsch is under immense pressure as Leeds United’s head coach this morning.
The bottom line is the Whites have taken nine points from their opening 10 Premier League matches and that’s one less than the 10 Marcelo Bielsa took from the first 30 available last term. And we all know which direction that campaign went.
Andrea Radrizzani has made it clear how itchy his trigger finger was in the weeks before he eventually gave Bielsa the bullet in February. You can almost sense regret in his words he did not act sooner with the Argentine to stop United’s nosedive.
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Will he show the same level of patience this time around? The owner, Angus Kinnear and Victor Orta, Marsch’s head-hunter, have all spoken glowingly about the American since his appointment, but how are they feeling this morning?
Bielsa’s predominantly successful four seasons in charge meant the board’s patience went untested for a long time and that’s made it hard to get a read on how ruthless Radrizzani can be in this position. Thomas Christiansen survived a run of two wins from nine in 2017, before getting the chop in February 2018 after no wins in six.
Paul Heckingbottom got the shove in a summer that followed four wins in 16 listless matches after Christiansen. Radrizzani’s not afraid to act, especially when the stakes are far higher now than they were in 2018, but if you take everything Marsch has said about the board at face value he seems bulletproof.
Granted, Marsch’s relationship with the board has not been tested like this before, but he has consistently talked up how this is the most supported he has felt in his entire career. Even last night, he reiterated how unified he, the board and the players are in turning this tanker around.
The head coach would talk up the board's patience with his predecessor, but the elephant in the room is their different situations. Marsch has nothing like the credit in the bank Bielsa had when things turned sour for the Argentine.
Apart from the Chelsea and Arsenal performances this season, at no point in Marsch’s 23 matches have the team played entertaining or effective football for more than a half at a time. If the entertainment isn’t there and the results aren’t there, it makes this a monumental task for Marsch to make it the long-term vision he sees.
The short turnaround for the Fulham match may well be what gives him that final chance to show what the team can do. Had it been a week-long wait, you wonder what steps the board might have taken.
Fans at breaking point
The camel’s back seemed to splinter in the stands at King Power Stadium last night. The final straw could come on Sunday, but the discontent was clear in the East Midlands.
Luis Sinisterra’s withdrawal drew the first pointed questions in the 75th minute about what was going on in front of them. Bielsa’s name would follow before more questions about the state of the football.
Marsch, normally so attentive to the supporters home and away, would make for the tunnel at the final whistle and push the last buttons of the night. It was easy for the supporters to ask where he was as the rest of his team fronted up to the boos and anger.
We saw discontent like this aimed at the board down the painful home stretch of last season and we know the board hears them. It becomes very hard for a head coach to survive when the fans have turned.
Elland Road could well be the acid test of where the fan base stands at large on Sunday at 4pm.
Making a rod for his own back
Two changes had been expected when the teams were announced at 7.15pm, but to see four raised eyebrows. Captain Liam Cooper and England candidate Jack Harrison were dropped to the bench, evidently not injured.
After going six matches without a win, Leeds went to the worst club in the division and Marsch chose to draft in Diego Llorente, with his stock at an all-time low, and the inexperienced Crysencio Summerville. It was a rod for his own back in the event of a defeat.
The logic on Cooper (managing his minutes through a three-match week) is understandable, but in a match of this magnitude when you are desperate for a win it just felt an odd move to take the risk with Llorente. Harrison’s recent form hasn’t been great, but he is one of the fittest players in the squad and was in no need of a rest.
Leeds had come out of, by Marsch’s own admission, the best performance of his tenure against Arsenal, but rather than ride out that momentum with as afew changes as possible, he made what seemed like unnecessary switches.
Aaronson and Adams keep grafting
It may seem a little irrelevant right now, but if you wanted any silver linings from another miserable evening then the two Americans on the pitch brought them. On a night which generally underwhelmed, Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson brought fight, tenacity, work rate, anticipation and quality.
The former has arguably been the player of the season for the Whites up to now and even when the rest of the team failed to inspire, Adams was constantly in the right place at the right time to tackle, obstruct, intercept and steal from the Foxes.
Aaronson was by far the best United attacking threat on the night. The number seven carried the ball well, showed an excellent touch at close quarters, speed of thought and quality in his execution. It was just a shame none of that amounted to a goal for Leeds.
Whatever may or may not happen to their compatriot in the top job, Adams and Aaronson have been two of the few success stories in this challenging season.
To Fulham
Having gone through six matches without a win, clashes with bottom-of-the-table Leicester City and newly-promoted Fulham were seen as last chances to salvage some form of momentum before the World Cup crashes the party. Anything less than four points would have underwhelmed and here we are.
Marsch may not have anticipated something on the scale of Brentford away last season for the second time in five months, but this Fulham match may feel something like that for him on a personal level. Ultimately, if the team loses, the players aren’t going to lose their jobs, Marsch might.
This set of players will keep going until the final whistle in every game, fighting for the three points, but Brentford was the last chance saloon deciding survival or relegation. This Sunday does not have the same connotations for the club, but Marsch has to know he needs a result.
Elland Road will be fully behind the head coach and team from the start, but if the match plan disintegrates into anything like we saw in Leicester or Croydon, the natives will not sit on their opinions. The board knows from its own experience how the fans will make it clear when they are unhappy.
With Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur coming before the World Cup break, even with a win over Fulham, it’s going to be hard for Marsch to find the kind of points tally which instils confidence before everyone goes their separate ways.
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