Clarity and confidence has been found in Michael Skubala’s collaborative, but simple approach to life at Leeds United’s helm. In the aftermath of Jesse Marsch’s sacking, the caretaker boss has opened his door, actively asked the club’s senior players what they want to see before adopting a tactical system which only tweaks his predecessor’s vision.
Max Wober will be at the heart of any success Skubala oversees in the coming games. After arriving last month, four weeks behind everyone else’s fitness work, the Austrian has quickly established himself.
Wober has started the last six matches in a row and proved to be one of the stars of the valiant efforts which pushed Manchester United all the way last week. The defender was struck by the clarity Skubala brought to the training ground with just one day to prepare for Old Trafford.
“He's very clear on how he wants us to play,” he said. “For the first Manchester United game he just had one day to prepare us for this game.
“So there's not a lot of time, but he did a really good job. He just kept it to the basics, made us play compact, made it easy for us players to understand what he wants.
“It worked out pretty well and it's also now the same for the Everton game. We've just prepared today (Thursday) in training, technically what we want to do.
“It's just about bringing all the players on board, making everybody understand how he wants us to play, how he wants us to attack, how he wants us to defend. He's doing a pretty good job.”
One of the cornerstones of Skubala’s approach has been the involvement of the team’s leaders. The likes of Luke Ayling, Liam Cooper and Patrick Bamford were asked directly what they felt needed changing in the aftermath of Marsch’s exit.
“It's really important,” said Wober. “Skoobs did really well, he brought in the leadership group, the experienced players and asked them about their opinion, what they think we have to improve on, what they think we have to work on.
“He got some opinions of the experienced players and try to combine everything and put a good team on the pitch and that's exactly what he did.”
There is no ignoring the fact Skubala has taken over from someone Wober was close to. Marsch worked with the Austrian in his homeland for two years and was the big reason why Wober arrived in West Yorkshire last month.
The 25-year-old admits it was a shock to see someone he is close to leave the club, but remains philosophical about how these things work in football.
“It's always sad when you see a coach being sacked and, obviously, I've been really close with Jesse,” he said. “I have worked with him [for] two years in Salzburg and we were really successful together.
“He was also a big part of why I made the transfer to Leeds because I know how he wants to play and also what kind of personality he is and I just always really enjoyed playing under him. Of course, it's always a little bit of a shock when the coach [who] brings you in is getting sacked after one month and that's not what you want to see, but it's part of football.”
Sixteen matches now stand between the Whites and the end of the campaign. It’s a little under three-and-a-half months until we will know how the final league table looks and, right now, there is no permanent head coach in charge of the team.
One of the factors which ruled out a number of the candidates for the role is understood to have been their tactical approach. Leeds can foresee difficulties with a replacement who wants to move too far away from what Marsch was working on for the past 11 months.
Skubala has purposefully looked for tweaks and a tactical evolution rather than revolution. Wober can see why a new face with an entirely different tactical outlook could be counterintuitive.
“It's always difficult to say,” he said. “There's obviously a risk if you bring in a new coach and he's going to change everything.
“He's going to change the system, he’s going to change what the whole team has been working on now for one-and-a-half years. It can go in a really positive way, but you can also need some time for it to work.
“Now, with Skoobs, who takes what we've been doing, or the whole team been doing for one-and-a-half years with Jesse and just tries to bring in his own style. We performed pretty well.
“He's just trying to make it easy for everybody to understand and make it clear how he wants us to play, how he wants us to play in each position, how he wants us to defend, attack in every phase of the game.
“Everybody in the dressing room was really confident about his plan or the whole plan the whole staff is setting up for us. You could see this also in the Manchester United games, everybody on the pitch was feeling pretty confident.”
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