Marsch must reduce the risk factor
Leeds boss should abandon principles in relegation dogfight
THERE is an uncomfortable irony in Jesse Marsch quoting pacifist Mahatma Gandhi as inspiration for his Leeds United players and then seeing captain Luke Ayling ruled out for the remainder of their relegation scrap because of a two-footed lunge.
When senior players abandon their senses in such a negligent manner — it was almost as if he chose to be sent off — it usually points to a deeper-rooted frustration behind the scenes.
The last time Leeds were relegated from the Premier League in 2004, Mark Viduka was dismissed during a 4-1 defeat at Bolton on the day their fate was effectively sealed. The game was little more than half-an-hour old when the striker picked up two yellow cards for a kick on Emerson Thome and an arm in the face of Bruno Ngotty.
Viduka was then part of the Newcastle team in 2009 when Joey Barton, much like Ayling, was redcarded for a studs-up challenge on Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso en route to relegation. Barton and manager Alan Shearer clashed in the dressing room afterwards and, funnily enough, it was Viduka who told his team-mate to, ‘Shut the f*** up and sit down’.
So, perhaps Ayling’s 27thminute indiscretion during Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Arsenal told us more about the mindset of the group than it did one individual. You can understand why there would be disillusion, too.
Marsch’s insistence that his team play out from the back is akin to self-harm. Look no further than Eddie Nketiah’s opening goal when he closed down goalkeeper Illan Meslier and profited from his heavy touch.
During last week’s Monday Night Football on Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher applauded the pragmatism of Everton boss Frank Lampard in sparking their turnaround. Tellingly, the key piece of analysis centred on goalkeeper Jordan Pickford no longer making short passes. He has been instructed to negate the risk of playing out through his defenders.
Marsch, however, has stuck to his principles. Such ideology, on current evidence, looks like leading them back to the Championship. He would do well to remember the nature of the goal that brought his first victory at home to Norwich in March, a long punt downfield that led to Joe Gelhardt’s 94th-minute winner. That, it should be noted, marked the start of a five-match unbeaten run which, were it not for the revival of Everton and Burnley, would have just about seen Leeds to safety. But Marsch (below) must face up to the reality of where his team now find themselves — and that is inside the bottom three with Chelsea next up at Elland Road tomorrow. The American, so polished and charming on arrival in England, looked a little washed-out and tormented at times on Sunday. It may have been a trick of the London light, but he appears to have aged in his two months in the Premier League. Marsch’s messages are also in danger of becoming mixed. It is one example — and maybe this is nitpicking — but he quotes nonviolence advocate Gandhi while also urging his players to fight for their lives. The point is more that, much like Lampard, perhaps now is the time for simplifying things.
The Leeds head coach, you feel, is more likely to dig deeper into his library of motivational literature in an attempt to find the words to influence his players. Prior to Arsenal, he used Gandhi’s passage on belief: ‘If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.’
You do wonder if Ayling had the Indian spiritualist on his mind when he dived in on Gabriel Martinelli. That would be a ‘no’, you assume. It could well be the defender’s last act as a Premier League footballer.
‘Luke Ayling has so much goodwill among supporters, but it was so reckless for a person wearing the armband,’ says Graham Hyde, vice-chair of the Leeds United Supporters’ Trust. ‘It was either a momentary lapse or a sign of an over-riding frustration.
‘Jesse Marsch seems like a very nice guy. But I am not sure he has the experience to get us out of this situation. Tactically, the team have looked clueless at times. And then you read reports of him using Gandhi as motivation. It seems to me like low-grade management speak.
‘The problem he has is that (former manager) Marcelo Bielsa was the man who wrote his own quotes, not followed others. Marsch had a great run of games to start and, even though he did well enough, we should have taken more points. Part of me is reconciled to going down now.’
History tells us that episodes of indiscipline such as Ayling’s are highly informative when it comes to forecasting a team’s survival chances.
All of a sudden, there is a whiff of relegation about Leeds. Marsch must hold his nose and adopt a style not necessarily of his liking, because now is the time for more action and fewer words.