Bielsa was incredibly popular with Leeds fans but he got fired. Fired for getting similar results that Marsch was getting albeit with worse players. Worse players, same results. You only get so long in a results business to get something going before they need to move on. Summerville scored an 84th minute winner against Bournemouth and an 88th minute winner against Liverpool. Take away those two very timely Summerville goals and you'd have to go back to August for a win. In fact if not for those two goals Jesse probably would have been gone before January window. His tenure at Leeds was not good. They have good players and I think they will escape relegation but Jesse dug them a hole.
Firing Jesse was the right call. His recent record was comparable in many ways to the final season of Bielsa, and worse in some ways. It would not look good if JM was doing just as poorly as Bielsa at the end, and they kept Jesse regardless. Keep in mind, the reason there is so much love for Bielsa is not just because he lifted them out of the lower leagues, although that is the primary reason for his deification. It is also because the Leeds fans saw him implement a system and an organization that they grew to understand and recognize; it was one that allowed players of limited quality to overcome and succeed. This is not me speaking, this is what I have heard from Leeds fans and podcasts like the Square ball. Towards the end, the system broke down and/or got found out by opposition, and Bielsa and the team struggled horribly, letting in goals like crazy. His firing was justified. With Jesse, the team is struggling with points all the same this season, and the key difference is the fans do not see a clear system, or a clear organization, and honestly, neither did I. I know the Red Bull way is helter skelter to an extent, but it is supposed to have some rhyme and reason, some coordination. It was not there. Either Jesse did not convey it to the players well, or they did not take that info on, or Jesse's system may have relied too much on firing up players with rah rah speak, with no substance. idk.
Yeah - and it seems sometimes playing style may create higher than real xPoints - from the eye test, it's clear that Marsch's teams create lots of good chances that they can't convert as well as lots of great chances for opponents that they can't stop. Also from the eye test, Fulham seems a much more cohesive and quality team from front to back - and by xPts should be below Leeds. Fulham seems to be clearly outperforming expectations and their quality - but for this season the stat seems sorta meaningless even if they will probably crash to earth next season. Being forged by Championship title and maintaining mediocrity in the PL over time are probably very different challenges.
Paired with Wober Koch has been good. At least good enough to It was a very complex problem. Some of the players began regressing even under Bielsa but the memory of their performances and potential led Marsch down a dangerous path. The Board finally opened their wallets a bit more for him but the additions (especially last summer) only papered over some of the holes in the squad. JM was incapable of working the same magic with Bielsa's players and nobody in the brain trust seemed to grasp it until now...Either Bielsa should've stayed, a different manager than Marsch replaced him, or a major overhaul of the roster should've begun last window and continued into January. Instead they dealt Marsch the same hand with a few wildcards thrown in and he rarely got it all working as planned
8 minutes before the Summerville goal against Liverpool… “CHANCE! Bamford takes a terrible first touch in the Liverpool box to spurn a glorious opening. Summerville plays him through on goal and he only needs to take a touch and fire at goal. However, he allows the ball to evade his control and his eventual strike is charged down by Henderson.” It seems pretty clear to me that Jesse wasn’t on the good end of the uncontrollable things that happen in sports, despite the timely goals you mention.
Per the bolded text above, I think this a key to a lot of defective team play. As they say, "consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" per RW Emerson and he deemed such consistency "foolish." Soccer played with massive technical skill but lacking change in pace is both boring and defeatable. Recall ManU during the van Gaal coaching years. Most good attackers have some form of excellent change of pace. So do most good teams. Many teams would do a lot better if unpredictable change of pace became part of the team's normal operating mode. Change of pace can't occur easily when the operating mode is fixed at "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" mode. Bielsa and Marsch seem to have a difficulty in that respect, per @uniteo's suggestion.
I'm not sure it's that they play better against big clubs, but rather, they play better against clubs that have enough self belief / hubris to just play their game and try to attack the other team. Teams that sat back and tried to counter did well against Leeds. Leeds were built to play against teams that try to play positively. Jesse probably needed a plan B for the teams that sat back and absorbed...
Life on a razor’s edge with a team like Leeds in the Premier League. If the linesman flags offside in the build up before the goal Sunday and VAR decides the penalty given West Ham wasn’t a clear and obvious error (or Struijk doesn’t commit two boneheaded fouls depending on your perspective) the perception of Marsch as a coach is still in the balance and Leeds are in 13th place and feeling pretty solid. Not as thin of a narrative changer as JT being short…but pretty thin gruel.
Marsch: We don’t have a good forward. We need to get one. Board: Any name? Marsch: There is a good one who I managed before and he is also a big Leeds fan. Board (excitingly): Give us the name! Marsch: Haaland. Board(disbelief): Get out!
I mean, I think a lot will tell from his next stop in Europe. Crashed out at Leipzig and Leeds. Will his style play elsewhere? Can he adjust? A lot of thin margins to be sure, but he hasn't made it happen so far in the big boy leagues.
Agree. Like any of us he needs a believable narrative. That gets tougher if the next stop is negative or ambiguous. From my perspective he’s had 2 good stops, 1 ambiguous stop and 1 complete flop. I hope it works out because I like him…and the reason I like him showed on Rodrigo’s face whenever they scored. On the plus side, he likely has some decent support from players and management despite the sacking. You’ve clearly covered the downside.
It's very hard to prove players have been trying to get rid of their manager by missing chances on purpose. It may even be a subconscious thing: they stop performing because they're unhappy with the coach's character, pedigree, country of origin, etc. but they're not doing it on purpose, they just feel demotivated.
I heard on Sirius that Armas will be one of three people taking over as joint "head coach". Not sure how that works.?.?
I'm telling you: once a destroyer, always a destroyer. Armas took a page out of Ritchie's book and ankled him.
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel but considering the timing I’m bitter enough to hope they get demolished Unless McKennie has a hat trick I don’t wanna see some dramatic turnaround as soon as Marsch gets booted.