Marcelo Bielsa was the toast of English football for a brief period as he led Leeds United back to the Premier League after a gap of 16 years. His intense style of management and revolutionary tactics took the English second division by storm, but he found the going tough in the top division, primarily due to the lack of star power in his team.
A string of bad performances has led to the sacking of the influential Argentine coach, who still commands a cultish following among some of the top coaches and players in the world.
Leeds are currently 16th in the Premier League with fears of relegation looming. The team is only two points above the relegation zone. To stem the rot, the owners have brought in 48-year-old American coach Jesse Marsch.
Marsch becomes the second American to manage an English top-flight team, after former US national team coach Bob Bradley helmed Swansea City for a few months in 2016.
The relatively young coach played 14 seasons as a midfielder in the Major League Soccer and coached several MLS sides before heading for Europe. In 2018, Marsch was appointed as an assistant coach at German Bundesliga club RB Leipzig under the current head coach of Manchester United, Ralf Rangnick, and he impressed the latter.
Marsch then moved to RB Salzburg the following season, winning the league and cup double in Austria, and being instrumental in the development of striker Erling Haaland.
He then had a brief stint as head coach of Leipzig in 2021 before leaving the club in December.
“Jesse is someone we identified a number of years ago during his time at Red Bull Salzburg and we believe his philosophy and style of football aligns with that of the club and will suit the players very well,” said Leeds director of football Victor Orta.
No doubt Marsch has big shoes to fill and a whole fanbase of Bielsa loyalists to win over. The American even acknowledge this in his first interview at Leeds.
“I have a lot to prove to our fanbase that I’m the right guy to follow such a hero like Marcelo Bielsa,” said Marsch.
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“My respect and admiration for Marcelo Bielsa is massive. How he’s helped transform Leeds United into a Premier League team is pretty amazing. Everything that’s been done has laid an incredible foundation and coming into this moment I just want to try to do everything I can to help take the club into the next phase of our history.”
Marsch is also a strong advocate of the pressing game that Bielsa incorporated. One area he will have to address is the fatigue and injuries that players have routinely suffered under Bielsa’s high-intensity demands.
He will be without three key Leeds players—striker Patrick Bamford, midfielder Kalvin Phillips and defender Liam Cooper—at the start of his regime, and must manage without them for a couple of months.
There is a strong prejudice against American coaches in England, and that will be another of Marsch’s battles on this side of the Atlantic. In the Ted Lasso era, every American coaching staff of clubs are made fun of, particularly since Bradley’s unconventional phrases and tactics at Swansea.
Marsch is more than that and has proved his stripes in Austria and Germany. But he has a tall order before him of rescuing a slumping Leeds United from another long exile out of the Premier League. And should he fail, the unfortunate American coach gag will continue in England.