PREMIER LEAGUE
Could Jesse Marsch be set for a Premier League return?
The former Leeds head coach could be on his way back to management.
According to The Athletic, Leicester City have “held talks” with Jesse Marsch as they look to replace the recently departed Brendan Rodgers.
Marsch was sacked by Leeds at the start of February and had been linked with a move to fellow strugglers Southampton.
He is now one of the candidates under consideration if Leicester decide to hire a new boss after tomorrow’s game against Bournemouth.
Caretaker coaches Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell are looking after first-team affairs, with the Foxes currently second from bottom in the Premier League.
Benitez also in contention
Former Premier League managers Rafa Benitez and Sam Allardyce are also possibilities for the interim role, but Marsch has indicated he might be interested in taking the job even if Leicester are relegated to the Championship.
Less than a year at Leeds
Marsch had a tough act to follow after the sacking of the beloved former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa, who took the club back to the English top flight after years in the Championship and in League One, and the American coach’s reign came to an end after less than a year in the role.
Marsch’s past and playing style
Marsch grew up in Wisconsin and played collegiate soccer with Princeton University in New Jersey. A midfielder by trade, he played in MLS for 13 years, having spells at D.C. United and Chicago Fire along the way.
Marsch’s playing career came to an end in 2009 and not long after, he joined the US men’s national team setup as an assistant coach to Bob Bradley.
Bradley knew Marsch well, coaching him at college and at all three of his MLS clubs. After over a year with the national team, his first head coaching role came with Montreal Impact. The former player was the club’s first-ever manager, but he only lasted one season before eventually moving on.
In 2015, New York Red Bulls hired Marsch to replace Mike Petke at the helm. The hiring was controversial among the club’s fanbase, but Marsch went on to turn the Red Bulls into one of the top teams in MLS.
Marsch likes his teams to play with speed and aggression. His tactics have long been based on the Red Bull ideology, which has been greatly influenced by former Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick.
In his spell with the New York Red Bulls, a high-press system was installed, and they forced teams to make mistakes. The opposition’s errors would then lead to swift counter-attacks, culminating in the Red Bulls playing in a similar way to the Red Bull clubs in Europe.
Life in Europe
Marsch joined RB Leipzig in 2018. At the German club, he worked as an assistant to Rangnick. Before the 2019/20 campaign, Marsch was named head coach of sister club Red Bull Salzburg and enjoyed great success, winning the Austrian Bundesliga and Austrian Cup in consecutive seasons.
He subsequently moved back to RB Leipzig, this time as head coach and left after a tricky couple of months in his second spell at the club. He left after 20 games in charge, just 14 of those in the Bundesliga, of which he won seven, lost nine and left the club 11th in the Bundesliga table.