Saturday night and despite the fear of Leeds United freezing on Merseyside, the air blew hot. Whigfield was on the stereo as they flooded back into Anfield’s away dressing room. Victor Orta hugged anyone that moved; players, staff, whoever. Jesse Marsch let it all flow, consciously trying not to steal the moment.
Nobody could have made Marsch believe it as the walls closed in on him last week but sometimes, very occasionally, football is perfect. Leeds head to Liverpool for an inevitable defeat and turn up their first win there in 21 years, the first time Virgil van Dijk has ever lost a league match at Anfield in red. Rene Maric, Marsch’s assistant, tells Crysencio Summerville that he will score tonight, and who is there to prod in with a minute of normal time to play, only his second senior goal in England and the day before his 21st birthday? One minute Marsch is on the brink, the next his demise is far less certain than death and taxes. So it goes.
Marsch looked tired at his post-match press conference, rubbing his face, emotionally spent. Managing Leeds can age a coach rapidly, like Simon Grayson stepping into the job with hair and leaving it with him well on the way to having none. “I’m not superstitious at all,” Marsch said but last week at Thorp Arch, he could not resist altering all sorts, tweaking what he could to try and break the contagion of destructive form. “Nobody wants to go through the same routine,” he said. “The problem now is knowing what to keep and what to change back!”
For him, and in light of the pressure he has been under, those are first-world problems, the healthy judgments that come with winning games and finding rhythm. If his tenure felt doomed after eight games without a win then that was more in the eyes of those looking in from the outside rather than those inside the building. Leeds’ hierarchy formed a ring around him after last Sunday’s defeat to Fulham, and that was the tone of the talk at the training ground as preparation began for Liverpool: that things had to change but those changes would not include the head coach, not unless results showed no sign of turning.
Within 48 hours of the Fulham game, the idea of a US tour during the forthcoming World Cup break had been shelved. Leeds will play a number of games in Europe instead, reckoning the balance of work and travel will be better. A proposed two-week break for the squad was slashed. Staff duties were altered and reassigned and Marsch asked a psychologist to work some magic. Tinkering was preferred to overarching action, all in the hope of buying him a little breathing space. A 2-1 win at Liverpool bought him more than a little.
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