Jesse Marsch's first big introduction to English football fans came more than two years before his appointment at Leeds United, when his Red Bull Salzburg team put in a spirited display against Liverpool at Anfield.
At the time the two sides met, in October 2019, Jurgen Klopp's hosts had been enjoying a flawless start to the campaign in front of their home fans: three home games, three wins and 10 goals scored.
In all competitions, the record was eight victories from nine games home and away, with a loss away to Napoli the only blot on the copybook.
Marsch had a plan, though. And, armed with a front-line boasting Erling Haaland as well as a quartet of future Premier League players, he almost got the job done.
After the game, though, the American went down a path others might not have done... he shared his secrets, letting the world know how he almost inspired one of the all-time great Champions League comebacks.
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Haaland, who was just 19 at the time began the Anfield game on the bench, with Hwang Hee-chan, Patson Daka, Takumi Minamino and Enock Mwepu all involved ahead of eventual moves to England.
And it was South Korea international Hwang who gave the Austrian side hope, leaving Virgil van Dijk on the turf before blasting into the top corner of Adrian's net.
Liverpool had been three goals to the good before that moment, with Sadio Mane, Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah all on target, but Marsch saw enough in that moment to believe the comeback was possible.
His half-time team-talk saw the former New York Red Bulls boss call for more physicality, as well as a direct order to target Van Dijk - something which many of the best sides around have tried and failed to do.
"Be more ruthless against Van Dijk, we play with too much respect. Too much respect," the manager said in footage later shared on his club's YouTube channel.
"Are they strong? Yes. But it doesn’t mean that we should be nice to them and don’t tackle them or fight.
"They have to feel us guys, they have to know we’re f*****g here to compete, not just that we’re here to stylistically going to try and play the same way, but we came to f*****g play.
The team-talk worked almost instantly. After Daka almost caught Adrian napping with an interception within minutes of the restart, the visitors got their second goal of the evening when a quick free-kick led to Minamino volleying home from Hwang's cross.
Haaland was introduced almost instantly, and it was the Norwegian who levelled things up, tapping in at the far post after Van Dijk was drawn out of the centre in a fruitless effort to prevent Minamino from finding his colleague.
The equaliser stirred Liverpool into a reaction, with Salah eventually scoring his second to win the game for Klopp's side, but it was tough to ignore the impact of Marsch's words.
However, despite their impact, you weren't likely to see Klopp sanctioning the same kind of public airing.
“If LFCTV would put out a video of me in a situation like that, I would leave the club," Klopp said when quizzed on the matter.
"That’s the truth. That’s all I have to say about that!”
As for the reaction to the same itself, being run so close by Marsch's men seemed to have a positive impact on the Reds.
They didn't lose another game of any kind until December, when a youthful XI was beaten by Aston Villa in the League Cup as the first team prepared for the Club World Cup in Qatar, and we had to wait until February to witness another loss for a full-strength Liverpool.
That long unbeaten run included the reverse fixture in Austria, before which we heard some more big talk from Marsch as he set out for revenge.
"I look at it like, what an awesome opportunity to test ourselves after five or six months," Marsch told Mirror Football ahead of the match at Red Bull Arena, which came less than a week after Liverpool had put five past Everton in a frightening attacking display.
"We’ve been working to throw it all together and see. [Now] how f***ing good can we be?"
However, after Salzburg had struck twice in the first 15 minutes of the second half at Anfield in October, Liverpool did the same on their rivals' turf.
Even more painfully for the hosts, it was former Salzburg man Naby Keita who opened the scoring, with Salah also on target as Klopp's side prevailed in the winner-take-all game to move into the knockout stages of the Champions League.
With Leeds having already faced Liverpool twice in the Premier League this season, Jesse Marsch will have to wait for his next opportunity to pit his wits against Jurgen Klopp.
However, with 12 massive league games between now and the end of the season. his motivational skills will certainly be put to the test.
