Ghosts need exorcising at Leeds United after the traumas of a campaign which diced with death and required deliverance from Championship evil at the 11th hour. A few of those elusive spirits have already been laid to rest by Jesse Marsch in a quietly promising start to 2022/23.
Yet there are two hauntings from his own 12-match stint last year which could do with a reading or two from Marsch’s bible on tactical supremacy. A 3-0 home defeat to Aston Villa and a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace were, ironically, floodlit bookends to an unbeaten run which ultimately kept the Whites up last season.
Selhurst Park point aside, they were two evenings which created some of the biggest worries about Leeds under Marsch. The abysmal home loss to Villa drew boos, anguish and even a scarf (which landed at Marsch’s feet) on one of the most toxic nights at Elland Road in several years.
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The trip to Croydon came 16 days after a 3-0 win at Watford which left everyone on the verge of euphoria in the real belief Leeds may just get be safe from relegation. The table tightened up in that gaping wait for football and so too did the team at Palace.
It was a miraculous point taken from Patrick Vieira’s side, who battered Leeds in territory and made nowhere near enough of the domination they had. Marsch’s side, unbeaten in the four matches previous, looked blunt and devoid of any convincing plan in attack. It was worrying.
It was unfair at the time to entirely blame Marsch for what happened on those nights. Villa was his second match and Palace his seventh, but as with everything during that period of the season, the spectre of relegation made everyone more irrational, concerned and keen to point a panicked finger at the reasons for that mess.
Marsch’s system was not working, that was plain to see. The American had neither the time nor the clarity in his players’ minds to instil what he needed to in order for his philosophy to pay off.
It was a painful period for all concerned and one which is pleasantly left in the past in exchange for a league table with United 11th in the table, and holding a game in hand on most of their rivals. Now those two ghosts come back to back for Marsch to strap on his proton pack.
With 29 impromptu days to prepare for Steven Gerrard’s Elland Road return, Marsch knows he needs to see a quick response from his players on Sunday. Results have been lacking since the Chelsea demolition of August and another match without a victory will see nerve levels rise once more.
United’s football has been infinitely better this season than what we saw down the home stretch of 21/22. Marsch is bound to take huge satisfaction from seeing this new Leeds dismantle the systems that piled in on his darkest days in the job so far.
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