On his arrival at Leeds United, Jesse Marsch was careful to stress that his 'principles' of playing would be more important than the side adapting to particular formations that they weren't used to playing under the previous manager, Marcelo Bielsa. With the Argentine at the helm, Leeds were best known for attacking in 4-1-4-1 and 3-3-1-3 shapes and utilising width in their attacks.
However, Marsch prefers narrowness, and the formations he favours reflect that, as he is best known for lining his teams up in a 4-2-2-2. In fact, according to Transfermarkt, RB Salzburg played the formation for every league game in the 2020/21 season. In the early games of his reign at Leeds, that's how the Whites lined up. With Jack Harrison and Raphinha playing behind Rodrigo and Dan James in the attacking four and with Adam Forshaw and Mateusz Klich playing as the deeper midfield two.
As time went on, that formation became more of a 4-2-3-1, with Raphinha and Harrison playing wider. That formation ended up being more common by the end of the season, apart from the period of three games where Leeds faced Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea and they attempted to make the game stodgy for their opponents with a three at the back formation, which proved unsuccessful.
