Leadership is one of the key tenets Jesse Marsch wants to lure out of Pascal Struijk as he approaches his mid-20s at Leeds United. With the ink on Struijk’s latest contract still drying and his minutes bettered only by Illan Meslier and Robin Koch, the Dutchman is becoming one of the most important projects at the club.
That contract running to 2027 was a show of faith from Leeds, who made a clear statement Struijk is their future in defence. Liam Cooper, whose own deal expires in 18 months, will be 35 when his teammate’s new contract ends and likely to have long since been supplanted by then.
Max Wober’s arrival poses an interesting question about the future of the defence too. While the Austrian can play at left-back, it would be no huge surprise to see a more natural full-back arrive in windows ahead to push Wober inside.
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Wober is only 18 months older than Struijk and yet they have vastly different experiences of leading senior teams, of being vocal, of being an organiser on the field. Marsch knows all that and wants to tease that next phase of development from the former Ajax prospect.
“I said to him I want him to push himself in terms of his voice, his presence, his leadership in the team and I wanted him to carry the captain's band today (Sunday) as the responsibility of a player we think has a big future at the club,” he said.
“He was great before the match. In the match, he did okay. We're continuing to try to push him to be the player he can be, but that was the emphasis.”
Struijk had been given the nod ahead of 32-year-old Joel Robles and Spain international Diego Llorente on the day.
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