Leeds United's defensive record from set-pieces was heavily scrutinised under Marcelo Bielsa. The Whites were one of the worst in the Premier League when it came to conceding for opposition free-kicks and corners throughout the Argentine's time at the club and it's one of the areas that Jesse Marsch has looked to address since becoming Leeds head coach.
As such, Leeds have only really given away one meaningful chance from a set-piece as Wilfred Ndidi had a free header from a corner in Marsch's first game. However, Aston Villa did score from the second phase of a free-kick as Tyrone Mings picked up a loose ball and Calum Chambers curled a sensational strike into the top corner as Leeds fell to a 3-0 loss to Aston Villa last Thursday.
Robin Koch was asked about how Leeds were now defending set-pieces differently in an interview with BBC Radio Leeds and whether the team felt more confident in keeping the ball out in their new approach.
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The German replied: "We’re defending partly in the space, partly man to man now. For the first games, it’s worked quite good. It’s different to before but we will see. We are training set-pieces so I think we can get better."
Under Bielsa, Leeds defended set-pieces in a similar way to how they defended in open play. That meant that every player had a man-marking assignment and this approach was criticised after Harry Maguire scored a header from a corner whilst Pascal Struijk was outside the box carrying out his man-marking duty on Scott McTominay. Pundits argued that as one of Leeds' stronger aerial players, Struijk should have been positioned zonally to win the original header. Under Marsch's new approach, goals like that one should be more avoidable.
