Brick walls are often held up as the gold standard for leaders. Is your team ready to smash through those stones and mortar for you? Jesse Marsch needs that kind of buy-in if Leeds United are to survive relegation. With four matches to play, the Whites find themselves with their fate in Everton and Burnley’s hands rather than their own. Should the Toffees and Clarets win all of their remaining games, the Whites are down.
Jesse Marsch said: “Earlier on I was talking about philosophical mumbo jumbo when people were asking about who I am. Who I am as a leader is not about being an iron-fisted hierarchy. I’m about valuing people and opinion and ownership. This is not a reflection of me, it’s a reflection of us. That requires me to have dialogue, conversation, give and take, to be a good listener. With any situation we’ve had this year, the players aren’t used to a manager like that and it’s not just comparing me to Marcelo, it’s in general. I don’t think there’s a lot of coaches that have that leadership style in our sport. This is what I valued most as a player because I would do anything for the coaches that cared about me, knew who I was and wanted me to be successful. I would do anything for those coaches.”
Time will tell whether doing anything for Marsch will deliver the success Leeds want.
