LEEDS, England (AP) — American coach Jesse Marsch was hired by Leeds on Monday, with the club hoping a late-season change in manager can help to preserve its English Premier League status.
Marsch replaced Marcelo Bielsa, who was fired on Sunday following a dramatic downturn in results, and is back in work nearly three months after leaving German team Leipzig.
He was previously at another Red Bull-backed club in Salzburg, which he led to back-to-back league-and-cup doubles in Austria.
Marsch has signed a deal until June 2025, with the appointment pending international clearance.
Leeds has dropped to within two points of the relegation zone after losing five of its last six league games. A 4-0 loss to Tottenham on Saturday proved to be Bielsa’s final match in charge and meant Leeds had let in 20 goals in February — the most conceded in a single month in league history.
Embedded in the Red Bull project for the last seven years through his coaching roles in New York, Salzburg and for four months at Leipzig, Marsch has an attacking, hard-running, heavy-pressing style that is not too dissimilar to Bielsa’s.
That should make the transition easier for the 48-year-old Marsch at Leeds, though he takes over a team low on confidence and with a number of injuries to key players such as first-choice striker Patrick Bamford, England midfielder Kalvin Phillips and captain Liam Cooper.
Marsch follows fellow American Bob Bradley, who managed Swansea for 85 days in 2016, in coaching in the Premier League. There was also David Wagner, a German-born former U.S. international, who managed Huddersfield in England’s top division from 2017-19.
Marsch's first game in charge will be against Leicester on Saturday.
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