Tony Dorigo believes Jesse Marsch’s zonal marking system could be the biggest difference between the new Leeds United manager and his predecessor Marcelo Bielsa, speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post.
It was oh so predictable.
Harry Kane drops into midfield, a Leeds defender sprints after him and Heung-Min Son darts into the space vacated behind.
During Saturday’s 4-0 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur – the final nail in Bielsa’s Elland Road coffin – the failings that have been made painfully clear since the turn of the year were in evidence once again.
But while Marsch has been appointed in an attempt to build upon, rather than rip up, the foundations laid down by Bielsa in West Yorkshire – director Victor Orta insisting that the American aligns perfectly with the club’s current philosophy – there is one major difference between the most iconic Leeds manager of the 21st century and his successor.
Can Jesse Marsch keep Leeds United up?
“To be honest, I didn’t know a great deal about (Marsch),” says Dorigo, a major part of the Leeds side who won the English top flight in 1992.
“The style is an interesting one. That is the thing that attracts me in that the high-pressing, high-energy style is what we have been playing.
“But Marsch doesn’t have that man-to-man side to him. And I do think that’s where the fit could work quite well, although he’s never been in the Premier League.
“There’s upsides and some question marks as well but he seems a really positive guy.”
Marsch will bring a new defensive system to Leeds. One that revolves around blocking gaps and filling spaces rather than chasing individual players around the pitch.
And for all the good and the glory Bielsa brought to Elland Road, a Premier League record of 20 goals conceded in a single calendar month is proof that the old methods had malfunctioned badly.
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