Having secured our Premier League future late on during the 2021/22 campaign, things have not got any easier for Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch with the 2022/23 season now well underway.
Despite some big moves in the transfer market as Marsch made the starting XI more his own, whilst fans will have mixed reviews on our performances over all, the simple fact is that results have been incredibly poor, particularly when you factor in that most of the sides we have played so far we would have hoped to be in around them, if not above them come the end of the campaign, and the UK’s best betting sites would have had good odds of us doing just that a few months back.
Eleven games into the year, we find ourselves in the first relegation spot, with four straight defeats on the spin, and Marsch has come out fighting and expressed his belief that things will turn around for us in the near future – there are growing doubts that this will happen under his charge.
With nine points secured from two wins and three draws, the biggest worry is that those sides above us – maybe with the exception of Bournemouth – are all now slowly starting to pick up points and with a two point gap to Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City, unless we get back to winning ways we are really going to find ourselves cut adrift at the bottom of the English top flight table.
With tensions and concerns rising further given the last four games and our most recent defeat to Fulham at Elland Road, fans and pundits alike are now inevitably talking about who Andrea Radrizzani might draft in next in an effort to save the season and secure our Premier League future – the question for most fans is will we pull the plug before betting offers for the World Cup take over domestic fixtures.
Unsurprisingly given his relationship with fans, Argentine genius Marcelo Bielsa continues to figure in that talk despite us relieving him of his duties back in February of this year.
Speaking to Sky Sports News on Tuesday evening to discuss the situation at Leeds, presenter Jeff Stelling thought it was time for Leeds to be practical again and not take a similar risk as we did when Marsch was appointed.
He thought we needed a steady, experienced hand at the tiller now.
“More practically, Sean Dyche. Dare I say, Marcelo Bielsa is available.”
There are some big names available right now and most fans will be drawn to the likes of Julien Lopetegui, Domenico Tedesco, Andre Villas-Boas and even Mauricio Pochettino. Like Stelling, fellow pundit Clinton Morrison feels they would be out of our ball park right now given where we sit in the table.
“Well, you never know, he could go back because the Leeds fans love him. That would be the best story. I don’t think Pochettino because there was talk of Aston Villa. I think Pochettino wants to manage a top-six team. But I do believe a Bielsa or a Sean Dyche – obviously I saw him on Monday Night Football – he’s itching to get back into it. Leeds fans might not be happy with the style of play but if there’s one thing Sean Dyche does do, he’ll keep you in the Premier League nine times out of 10. He did it at Burnley and he’s a fantastic manager. It could be Sean Dyche but I don’t want to talk about that too much because Jesse Marsch is still in charge and I don’t want him to lose his job.”
A Bielsa return might be a dream, but you cannot really see it happening. One thing is for sure though, we will have a new face soon unless Marsch can get some wins and points on the board as the winter break for the Qatar World Cup looms large.
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