Racine’s Marsch named manager of Leeds United
American coach Jesse Marsch was hired by Leeds United on Monday, with the club hoping a late-season change in manager can help to preserve its English Premier League status.
Marsch, a native of Racine, replaced Marcelo Bielsa, who was fired on Sunday following a dramatic downturn in results, and is back in work nearly three months after leaving German team Leipzig.
He was previously at another Red Bull-backed club in Salzburg, Austria.
Marsch has signed a deal until June 2025, with the appointment pending international clearance.
Marsch became the first American to coach in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2019, when he guided RB Salzburg of Austria into the fray — a major achievement for Austrian soccer.
He also won the “double” for Salzburg, claiming the league and domestic cup in Austria, a particularly impressive feat considering Marsch was in his first season as manager. It made Marsch the first American manager to win a European title.
Marsch, 48, a former high school soccer standout who graduated from Racine Case in 1991, won 59 of 88 games at Salzburg and narrowly missed the knockout stage of the Champions League, taking third in a group that featured powerhouses Liverpool and Napoli.
Leeds has dropped to within two points of the relegation zone after losing five of its last six league games. A 4-0 loss to Tottenham on Saturday proved to be Bielsa’s final match in charge and meant Leeds had let in 20 goals in February – the most conceded in a single month in league history.
“I have to identify how to do the important things and simple things right away, before building the complexity moving forwards,” Marsch said
“We have all the tools here. I’m here to help this group understand how we can get better and handling the moment right now, we have to stay calm and control what we can control. We are still in a good situation where we control all of our destiny.”
Embedded in the Red Bull project for the last seven years through his coaching roles in New York, Salzburg and for four months at Leipzig, Marsch has an attacking, hard-running, heavy-pressing style that is not too dissimilar to Bielsa’s.
“My style of play, my aggressiveness and the desire I have for teams to be intensive and to run and make things difficult for the opponent fits with what has been done here for 31⁄2 years, (under Bielsa),” the former U.S. midfielder said.
That should make the transition easier for Marsch at Leeds, though he takes over a team low on confidence and with a number of injuries to key players.
Marsch follows fellow American Bob Bradley, who managed Swansea for 85 days in 2016, in coaching in the Premier League. There was also David Wagner, a German-born former U.S. international, who managed Huddersfield in England’s top division from 2017-19.
Marsch’s first game in charge will be against Leicester on Saturday.