Leeds United legend Eddie Gray believes Jesse Marsch’s arrival at the club came at just the right time to secure Premier League survival. Marsch replaced Marcelo Bielsa as the Whites’ head coach at the end of February and has helped guide them towards safety on the final day of the season.
At the time of Bielsa’s sacking, Leeds’ results had began to spiral out of control, losing five of his last six matches in charge – conceding 21 in that timeframe. Despite Bielsa’s overriding success at Elland Road, he was always a manager who preferred to keep his relationship with players on a solely professional level.
Marsch, though, has a completely different approach to man-management, as he has opened up several times in press conferences on how much he is enjoying getting to know the players. Speaking on talkSPORT, Gray believes the ‘arm around the shoulder’ is exactly what Leeds needed in order to survive.
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He said: “I’ve been up to the training ground to watch a few of his training sessions, they’re good, enthusiastic, he puts a lot into it and he’s a nice man. I think they’ve bought in what the club do, they’ve took some bold steps, sacking Bielsa and bringing a new manager in that no one really knew about.
“It’s proved to be the right decision. I thought it was time for him to probably go, obviously he was a great coach. But when things start to go wrong, disappointing results, he’s not the type of manager to put his arm round anybody, there was no real communication, I don’t think, between him and the players.
“Sometimes you need a hand round the shoulder and he was never like that. Jesse Marsch has not only been round long but I know him better than Marcelo. Marcelo didn’t have great communication skills for talking to people off the football pitch, on the football pitch he was a genius, the players say that.
“He didn’t really mix with the players and that makes it difficult. I wouldn’t say he’s aloof but I don’t know whether he was a shy man but the football pitch was his domain. I don't think he thought of anything other than football but his legacy at the club will live forever, what he did.”
