The Elland Road boardroom vibes are broadcast by its programme column chief executive. This weekend, Angus Kinnear was seeking solace in the Premier League’s season break for the World Cup.
This, he stated, would let Leeds United “return in December to build on a firm foundation” and if it sounded like a club limping through a storm then the game that ensued reiterated that message.
It would be nice to have a firm foundation in December, but it would be great to have a foundation right now. —.
Jesse Marsch is their head coach and wants to manage the fightback. However, in the stands and on the streets, fewer people see him as the solution. It turned sour at Leicester City last week. With vitriol that made it sound like the point of no returns for a manager.
Parts of Sunday’s home crowd were lost to the away crowd, while some of them followed. FulhamElland Road won 3-2 and everyone began to search online for an image of a corner banner. “The board and I are unified,” Marsch insisted and as of last night, no one in a position of power was contradicting him.
Marsch has lost the away crowd. Now the home crowd has also turned (Photo: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Image)
After his death, the men who were above Marsch quickly rallied their support for him. LeicesterHe gave Fulham assurances that he would take charge, but he didn’t speak Sunday like a man who had been beaten.
These are alarming times and could have serious consequences if they continue. Although avoiding relegation was a blessing in May, Leeds, with a summer of significant change and specific recruitment, has conspired to get themselves into more trouble than they were last year.
In that period, the relationship between their ownership team and their fanbase also declined. The disconnect grew as disillusionment spread beyond Marsch’s players. Leeds had it, and they lost it, and now there is a lot of pressure to reset.
Kinnear argued that “false dawns and depressing defeats have been outnumbered by redeeming performances and inspiring victories” for as long as the current regime has been running the show. It might be true that this is true for Leeds and Marcelo Bielsa, however, it has been devoid in alchemy with few exceptions.
Marsch continues to fight and Leeds is more inclined to let him go, trying to avoid a series of repeated sackings. Both must be aware that there is little chance of them avoiding the inevitable. The league is: LiverpoolThen, away is next BournemouthThen, Tottenham Hotspur. It is impossible to lose sight of safety when there are two points between you and your goal, regardless of how much time you spend on the World Cup break.
Leeds’ certainty in Marsch, in striking out to appoint him in February, is matched only by the battle in trying to understand it.
Victor Orta, the club’s director of football, analysed around 40 coaches across Europe, preparing for the day when Bielsa left, and came up with the conclusion that Marsch was one of the best, the obvious choice. Leeds tried to promote him, which was a smart step from the Bielsa approach, but there is no natural transition. There is also no similarity in methodology. It doesn’t work as well today as it did under Rosario.
Fulham’s game was in many ways a typical example of the rut Leeds is in. They got into Fulham and took the lead after 20 mins. Then they dropped off and conceded to an opponent. Aleksandar Mitrovic header. Fulham fought for victory at 1-1 in the second period. They worked more efficiently and had more courage to persevere. Leeds was not a team that could win a match. “They’re a team with confidence and they find ways to win,” Marsch said. “We find ways to lose. It’s painful right now and I take responsibility.”
In stoppage time, there was a carrot of some sort. Crysencio SummervilleHowever, 3-1 was turned into 3-2 by Marsch. Many seats had been taken and the worry in the air would not have dissipated if Leeds scored again. Marsch looked beaten at full-time, exchanging demoralised handshakes with Fulham’s bench.
He walked around the pitch, applauding the crowds and inviting mutual applause as well as dissent. He was greeted by a ball and kicked it over to the West Stand touchline. It was something to relieve his anger. It was difficult to not sympathise with him, no matter how he failed.
The irony of Marsch’s team is that their attacking stats are passable, good enough in theory to see them right. But the goals they actually achieve are very limited. Concessions are becoming more common and Leeds’ tactics are often flawed.
Leeds under Marsch is inclined to follow a similar trend (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images).
Bielsa’s side knew how to play out from the back, how to maintain patterns of play. Marsch’s side are engaged in a huge struggle to connect defence to midfield and midfield to attack. They are often forced to ignore the middle of the field, trusting that chaos will bring them opportunities. Fulham was able to spread possession around freely and work the flanks. Leeds were caught in a loop of driving long diagonals towards the end. Luis Sinisterra.
Although there were many opportunities to make it different, Leeds is stuck in a pattern. When they have the ascendancy and the intensity to win, aggressive, energetic starts become passive football. Good moments are lost.
This creates a winning formula for teams that are playing against each other: draw the sting and douse the initial bursts of pain with water, then hit back. Andreas Pereira ran Fulham’s midfield, encouraging them to attack with ambition. “We were the best team on the pitch,” said Fulham manager Marco Silva, and genuinely they were.
Marsch’s system is the one he trusts, the system he believes in despite the lie of the land. Leeds’ limitations are increased by the absence of a dependable No 9, though he refused to get into the failure to sign one in the summer by saying he did not want to “start playing hindsight or throw anyone under the bus. I’m looking at myself”.
Chants of “sack the board” fed into the same question. There is scepticism about Marsch but not only about him and the club’s next move will be everything. Incredibly, Leeds is facing the same test of judgment as Bielsa. The year could be defined by what happens next.
The middle of august, the week following a wild victory Chelsea, stands as Marsch’s zenith, the only time when Marsch and Elland Road were, indisputably, as one. The eight games that followed led the jaws to close again, suffocating the club, squeezing that burst of exuberance out of them and bringing about last week’s moments of reckoning.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Leeds would have to be a great believer in order to believe it will.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
