Jesse Marsch's replacement at Leeds United does not need to be a Marcelo Bielsa disciple or even anything like the feted Argentinian.
Simply because Leeds need to become a more three-dimensional team than the one they have been under either of their previous two managers.
That’s the verdict of former Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and England striker turned Mirror Sport columnist Stan Collymore. He said: “Bielsa and Marsch both stuck to their dogma, and in the end it cost them.
“Because the reality for teams who are in the bottom half of the table — which is where you’d expect Leeds to be for the next few seasons — is that they need to be more flexible and neither of them were.
“They need to change things up depending on whether they are at home or away, whether it’s a six-pointer against a relegation rival or a freebie against one of the top teams.
“At home, yes, they need to be able to go and attack teams, but without throwing the kitchen sink at anyone and everyone who visits Elland Road, as they have done in previous seasons.
“And on away days, they must utilise the abundance of pace they have in the team to good effect on the counter-attack while making themselves very hard to beat.
"It needs to be an all-round more pragmatic approach where they mix and match their styles according to where they are playing and who they are playing, and what is at stake.”
Marsch was sacked last week and Leeds have struggled to find a target who wants the job. Carlos Corberan, Bielsa’s former Elland Road assistant, turned the job down and penned an extension at West Brom.
While Rayo Vallecano have also rejected an approach for their boss Andoni Iraola. And Collymore added: “Marsch going was the right decision. He was always going to suffer from the Ted Lasso comparisons.
“When a manager comes in, it’s like Unai Emery at Aston Villa, while they are winning everyone is happy but once you start losing it’s all, ‘Good ebening’, and he’s the guy who can’t speak properly.
“The whole Americana will possibly keep hampering American coaches moving forward. There’s a language coaches speak that we’re used to and Marsch’s wasn’t it.
“It may not seem an issue, the American stuff, when you’re playing well, but when you’re not it becomes an issue generally, it’s easy to become a pastiche of a character and ultimately he wasn’t getting the results.”
Marsch was brought in to replace last February and he helped keep Leeds in the Premier League. However, Elland Road fans on the whole have never taken to him and, with the club struggling again this season, he has paid the price.
