Jesse Marsch has 12 games to keep Leeds United out of the Premier League relegation zone between now and the end of the season.
He has been appointed as the replacement for Marcelo Bielsa with the main objective of ensuring the Whites are playing in the top flight again next term.
Given Leeds’ form throughout February, the new boss has a huge task on his hands to turn around the fortunes of the squad he has inherited.
The defensive frailties need addressing more than anything else after the last five games of Bielsa’s reign brought the concession of 20 goals.
Although, that won’t be easy as Marsch’s first game in charge comes just five days after his appointment, against a team that has been outscored only by the division’s top five teams.
Despite his footballing ethos being very similar to that of Bielsa, any small changes that he tries to make will take time after the group of players at the club have become so used to their former manager’s methods.
For that reason, Michail Antonio believes it could be tough for the American to have the desired effect before the end of the season.
“It’s going to be difficult,” he told the Footballer’s Football Podcast.
“He’s going to come in with the same philosophy [as Bielsa] or close to it but to get players that are used to a certain way of playing for the last two or three years to change and adapt to his way of playing over 12 games is near on impossible to do.
“He needs a summer, he needs that time to get them into the shape he wants, to get them to play how he wants.
“I feel that he could possibly win the first two or three games but once his philosophy starts to kick in and they transition from how Bielsa played to how he’s playing, that’s when the difficulty comes.
“That’s when they’ll be stuck in limbo and it’s that time when you ask whether they’re going to be able to pick up results or are they going to be punished.”
To hear the insight of a current Premier League footballer is extremely interesting on such a contemporary matter but it might worry Leeds supporters.
Antonio is someone who will have gone through similar managerial changes throughout his career and seems to be speaking from experience in regard to his comments about Marsch.
Unfortunately, the new boss doesn’t have the luxury of time in the short term and needs his methods to pay dividends immediately if Leeds are to stay in the Premier League.
