Say what you want about Jesse Marsch, the fact is that Southampton are on the verge of replacing Nathan Jones with a man who, just last season, demonstrated that he has the ability to take over a relegation-threatened team and guide them to safety (The Guardian).
When Marsch succeeded Marcelo Bielsa in February 2022, he inherited a squad who’s confidence had clattered head-first into rock bottom. Leeds, during their final five games under Bielsa, lost four and conceded a staggering 20 goals. The most let in by any Premier League team in a single month.
Marsch’s Leeds may have lacked the guile and the exhilaration of Bielsa’s, but they were always aggressive and determined. The Wisconsin-born 49-year-old never reached Bielsa’s ceiling, but he arguably raised the floor.
During Marsch’s tenure, Leeds only lost a league game by more than three goals on two occasions. Across the same timeframe, Southampton have lost six Premier League matches by more than three goals.
Some Saints fans – and a number of pundits – are a little underwhelmed by Marsch’s impending arrival. Especially given that he was sacked by a direct relegation rival just a week ago following a dismal run of two wins from 17. But, under Marsch, these long-suffering Southampton supporters can expect to see a team who fight from the first minute to the last. A team who never give up. If the Saints do go down under Marsch, it won’t be for a lack of fight.
Jesse Marsch in at Southampton
“I think it’s a job you take,” former USA international Charlie Davies tells the In Soccer We Trust podcast. “If you rise above it and take Southampton out (of the relegation zone), you’re a legend.”
Marsch, Davies adds, has a superb track record with regards to developing exciting young players. See Erling Haaland at RB Leipzig, Wilfried Gnonto and Crysencio Summerville at Leeds. And it just so happens that Southampton’s squad, while short on proven Premier League talent, boasts some of the division’s most intriguing up-and-comers.
Marsch’s Leeds reportedly wanted Romeo Lavia last summer. Expect to see the former Manchester City starlet – Southampton’s best deep-lying ball-player – become one of the first names on Marsch’s team sheet at St Mary’s. Sam Edozie, Kamaldeen Sulemana, Carlos Alcaraz and Tino Livramento (when he returns from a long-term injury) can be confident of regular minutes under the former New York Red Bulls coach too.
“I am lucky to have gotten to know him as a coach, but also as a person,” Haaland once said of Marsch. “He was very good with me. As you saw, I was very happy on and off the pitch in Salzburg. Even though it was just six months, it was a good time. He is an amazing guy.”
Haaland thinks he’s ‘amazing’
Marsch, meanwhile, is a flexible coach willing to adapt his formation to suit the players at his disposal. Leeds often played in a 4-3-3. His RB Leipzig team shifted from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-2-1. Salzburg, meanwhile, dominated the Austrian scene while thrilling on the Champions League stage with their high-pressing 4-2-2-2; Erling Haaland often starting up front alongside the versatile Hwang Hee-Chan.
Southampton are a team built in Ralph Hasenhuttl’s image; a coach who shares Marsch’s preference for high-pressing and high-aggression. Hasenhuttl, interestingly, utilised a 4-2-2-2 system throughout much of his time on the banks of the Trent, so Marsch may be tempted to return to the system that secured him successive Austrian Bundesliga titles at RB Leipzig.
Paul Onuachu may be tasked with playing the Haaland role; leading the line with power and physicality. Alongside a more diminutive talent, be it Sulemana, Mislav Orsic, Che Adams or another, providing a link between midfield and attack.
Marsch also likes a mix of physicality and finesse in the centre of the park. Alongside Lavia, the all-action Ibrahima Diallo could perform a role similar to that of Tyler Adams at Elland Road. Marsch is not averse to using more attack-minded midfielders in flexible, inverted roles. The buzzing Alcaraz and the instrumental James Ward-Prowse could, perhaps, start out wide while drifting into more central positions.
JWP and Paul Onuachu; a match made in heaven
A wider role would allow Ward-Prowse to make full use of his devastating crossing ability; particularly with a 6ft 7ins targetman in Onuachu on hand to gratefully gobble up his trademark deliveries. Ball-carriers Joe Aribo and Stuart Armstrong could also be revitalised in a the sort of roving ‘number eight’ role the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai and Takumi Minamino thrived in at Salzburg.
An overly-narrow midfield, meanwhile, is solved by the energy and incision of overlapping full-backs Romain Perraud, Kyle Walker-Peters and Livramento.
Some may see Marsch’s arrival as a ‘madness’, but there’s ‘method’ too. In Marsch, Southampton are getting a coach renowned for helping young players realise their potential, employing a high-energy system, and helping guide a team away from the relegation zone.
Three boxes every incoming Saints boss must tick.
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