Leeds United confirmed the appointments of two new faces to Jesse Marsch’s backroom staff prior to Thursday’s 4-0 win over Blackpool in pre-season. Pierre Barrieu has joined the club as a fitness coach, while Ewan Sharp has been named as Marsch’s new assistant coach after leaving his role at another Premier League club earlier in the summer.
Frankie Schiemer has now left his role as assistant manager but the club have said he will continue working as a coaching consultant from afar. Mark Jackson and Cameron Toshack will continue in their current positions under Marsch, while the club are still in the process of appointing a new U21s manager after Andrew Taylor returned to his original role as loan manager at the end of the season.
So with Marsch having now got his desired coaching team behind him, here is a more in-depth look at what the two new faces will bring to the club.
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Pierre Barrieu
Pierre Barrieu is an extremely experienced face in the world of football, having began his career in the industry way back in 1999. Barrieu has had two different spells as the USMNT’s head fitness coach and also has experience in the English game with Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea City.
The 50-year-old’s most recent role came at Toronto FC as Director of High Performance, which he left to link up with Marsch at Elland Road. Upon his arrival in Canada, though, Toronto’s general manager Ali Curtis was full of praise for both the ‘experience and knowledge’ of fitness he could bring to the club.
“Pierre brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our club having worked at the highest levels of the game. Excited about the positive impact he will have on our team’s overall health, fitness and conditioning.”
Ewan Sharp
Despite only being 30 years old, Ewan Sharp also arrives with plenty of experience under his belt, as well as a wealth of knowledge regarding the system Marsch would like to implement. In his last two roles, Sharp has worked under Ralf Rangnick at both Lokomotiv Moscow and Manchester United as a match analyst.
Marsch worked under Rangnick during their time together at Red Bull Salzburg and so have similar ideology as to how the game should be played, which Sharp will be able to buy into. Sharp arrives at Leeds as Marsch’s assistant manager, a role he has also had last year at Toronto FC.
Upon Sharp’s appointment at Old Trafford in December 2021, Rangnick described Sharp as ‘very talented’, which should bode well for Leeds. He said: “Ewan and I worked together when he was still with the New York Red Bulls as a video analyst and assistant coach.
“At the time I was in my role as Head of Global Football for Red Bull and at that time I got to know him and even though he was only 26 he was such a talented person, and he still is. He was in Toronto and then at Lokomotiv Moscow and I’m very happy to have him on board.”
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