Speaking on the BBC Radio Five Live Football Daily Podcast, Nigel Reo-Coker has compared Jesse Marsch to Ted Lasso.
If you don’t know, Ted Lasso is a TV show about an American Football coach who comes to the UK to manage the fictional club AFC Richmond, and as you may imagine, things don’t go too well for Ted.
The TV character. is mocked by some of his players and the media for his overly-enthusiastic and stereotypically American approach to an inherently British sport, and after two bad results in recent weeks, Reo-Coker has branded Jesse Marsch as the real-life Ted Lasso.
What’s been said?
Reo-Coker spoke about Marsch and Leeds’ predicament.
“I can’t speak for him in that sense, but in my relegation battle with West Ham the big characters took over the dressing room and every game was a cup final for us. We made sure nobody let the team down. For us it was the big characters, and that’s something we seem to be missing in football clubs these days. I know Jesse has come in and that’s something of a honeymoon period, but now, that honeymoon period has started to die down and we’re seeing the real life Ted Lasso,” Reo-Coker said.
The two hosts on the show were quick to jump to Marsch’s defence after these comments.
“That’s unfair Nigel, no, no that’s not fair,” The host said.
“I will pick up there because that is savage even by my standards,” The co-host said after Reo-Coker’s comments.
So unfair
Look, we appreciate that the Ted Lasso jokes are inevitable, it’s low-hanging fruit and it’s a cheap laugh, but comparing Marsch to an inept TV character is, quite simply, unfair.
Is Marsch an optimistic American? Yes, and John Giles has expressed his concern about his optimism recently, but he’s also a very accomplished manager.
He’s managed both RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig, and he’s not even doing a bad job at Leeds. After all, before the loss to Man City, the Whites were on a five-game unbeaten run.
Yes, things look bleak at the moment, but if Leeds do go down this season, it’s not Marsch’s fault.
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