Old pals reunited
Eagle-eyed fans will have already seen how much time Mateusz Klich and Jan Bednarek spent together this summer. The Poland team-mates were spotted sharing a few moments together on the pitch after their arrival this afternoon.
Information sharing
Like a great many of the employees in Southampton’s backroom staff, there are ties with Jesse Marsch’s staff. There is the obviously shared history between Ralph Hasenhuttl and Marsch, but Andrew Sparkes is a slightly more under-the-radar option.
The Saints goalkeeping coach had the best part of a year as Red Bull Salzburg’s under-18 goalkeeping coach in 2011 before going on to New York Red Bulls. Sparkes spent seven years as the under-23 goalkeeping chief there, ironically before Marsch even arrived in 2015.
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While he never worked with Marsch there is clearly a lot of the Red Bull DNA in Sparkes’s coaching and he was spotted chatting with Marcos Abad, a new adopter of the Red Bull approach, pre-match.
A new vantage point
Ewan Sharp and Cameron Toshack were surprise visitors to the press box on Saturday afternoon. Better known as coaches rather than in-game analysts, the pair usually watch games from the dugout alongside Marsch, Rene Maric and Mark Jackson.
However, they took seats alongside the media throughout the match to get some important shade and a different vantage point on matters. Sharp worked on a laptop while Toshack watched the game.
Marsch’s subtle Bamford instruction
Leeds knew their first substitute was coming. Daniel James was being prepared for several minutes before the board finally went up with his number.
It was not clear to those of us in the stands who would be coming off. There was no sign of a limp or issue on the field from any of the Leeds players.
The first sign was Marsch subtly, quietly waving his hand in Patrick Bamford’s direction and actually telling him to go down. As soon as the striker did, Marsch appealed to the fourth official for the match to be stopped.
Corners like goals
In the 58th minute, Marsch celebrated the ultimate definition of his tactics paying off. Southampton, incredibly on the ropes by this stage, were pressed further and further back into their penalty box.
James Ward-Prowse, a defender and Gavin Bazunu were giving each other meek passes inside the box before they ran out of options. The captain passed it out for a corner and Marsch was celebrating like his side had scored because of the success in the team’s press.
Note
In the 77th minute, by which point the hosts were in the ascendancy and Leeds were falling apart, Marsch called James over to the touchline and gave him a large note. Notes are all well and good, but surely there should have been changes made to the personnel by that stage, rather than scribblings.
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