please log in to view this image Leicester City v Leeds United Saturday 5th [email protected] - King Power Stadium Leeds will be without Diego Llorente, Kalvin Phillips and Liam Cooper for the Saturday lunchtime trip to the King Power Stadium, as Jesse Marsch prepares for his first game in charge of the Whites. Phillips and Cooper were expected to have been fully fit by now, and playing first team football, but after Marsch spent some time with Rob Price (Head of Medicine and Performance) on Monday, a revised date nearing the end of March has been suggested. Llorente has struggled with a calf injury over the last three weeks, and missed training today. There is good news however for Patrick Bamford. The 28yo is back in full training, and may make the bench. Marsch spoke positively about Gelhardt, Cresswell, Summerville and Greenwood, and their development to first team football. With Bamford not match fit yet, Gelhardt or Greenwood may get the nod. Greenwood returned to the U23's on Monday and scored from the penalty spot during the 1-1 draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The American praised Cooper, Ayling and Forshaw for their leadership qualities, Dallas for his hard work and Rodrigo for his intelligence. He touched on zonal marking and man for man marking, but refreshingly didn't want to give too much away. One interesting thing he did mention was having a balanced team. Perhaps we will no longer see individuals playing out of position? With one eye on the Europa Conference tie against Rennes next Thursday, Leicester City Manager may opt to change a few things round. Timothy Castagne, Jonny Evans, James Justin, Wesley Fofana, Ryan Bertrand and Ricardo Pereira will miss the game with injury. Maddison and Vardy could both start after coming off the bench to score against Burnley midweek. Although 12th in the table, the two games the Foxes have in hand, could easily elevate them into the top half of the table.
I'm looking forward to seeing what side Mr Marsch sends out and also the reaction from the players. I'm still a bit raw from Bielsa's sacking and it'll be strange seeing someone else in the hot seat. I wish the new man all the best. I hope all the supporters get behind him and the team. It'll be a hard game and a point would be nice. LEEDS LEEDS LEEDS
Evening all. My thoughts are we can lose the game but there needs to be some positive signs for the upcoming 2 home games (Villa & Norwich). What those signs are remains to be seen but come 2-30pm on Saturday we'll have an idea whether Jesse Marsch is potentially out of his depth or not. Hoping Bamford makes the bench with a view to be able to start against Norwich in a weeks time.
How would you define being out of his depth when losing 3-0 would be progress? A few days with them to break some 3 1/2 year habits. It would be remarkable if he was able to show any significant improvement. I’ll judge him in 12 games time, and even then it’s caveated by it not being his side or his players.
mostly they were used to being average championship players so if they revert to type we’re definitely going down seriously, the point is bielsa had set plays that he drilled into them on autopilot… now, suddenly the player you expect to be in position a is in position b, you have to remember to not follow your man all round the park when you’ve spent over 3 years doing the opposite. It’s not like: flick a switch and everyone suddenly commits to a zone press with perfect timing and execution, It would be a great achievement for marsch to hit the ground running in these circumstances. But I’ll be watching and hoping he can
We’ll win and we’ll see a vast improvement, if we don’t then it’s just going to take a bit longer. We don’t need wholesale changes, just a few tweaks
We have English, Brazilian, Spanish, German, Scottish, Welsh etc internationals, plus a lot of kids who play for their respective international sides. None of those teams play Bielsaball and they have all adapted. No reason why they can’t adapt to the new guys tactics. Might not happen this weekend but surely they can get it in a few weeks?
Marsch today said that he had been keeping his tactical changes simple. He has been speaking individually and giving players videos and indeed showing the group videos. He is very surprised at just how quickly the players are picking it up. He said the last time he had to do this it took his players 3 weeks to do what our lads are doing in 2 days. He will carry on doing bite size chunks but has to use some drills specifically for Leicester. Next week he will add a bit more complexity and also factor Villa in for Thursday. A point will be a good result
Correct..... .if a professional footballer can't follow simple tweaks to a system or new instructions to a style of play within a few days of being told them then they should try out another career and an international player should have the nous even quicker
Well you’d hope the 3/4 fit full internationals we have would adjust quicker than the rest… and of course they can adapt but expecting them to be a well oiled machine to the new coaches ideas in 3/4 days? Like you suggest a few weeks is more likely. He implied as much himself. His long term plan to create a team in his style begins properly in the summer… for now he’s patching and hoping a few basics stick.
the point is all 11 of them have to do it at the same time and in synch. But hey international teams always look more cohesive than club sides don’t they? look at the great job Eddie Howe has done at Newcastle. Everyone there loves him now.l but they were rank sh*te for two months after he joined.
It's all manager speak at the moment Doc. We await the on field evidence that the players can adapt to a new coach and I'm still baffled why the ownership chose to make the change with three vital matches in 8 days. Put simply you do not replace a world class coach mid/late season with someone who will need time to implement his tactics. As said previously, we don't need to win the match but we do need to see some evidence that Marsch knows how to coach a team at PL level and that the players are willing to play for him. John Carver anyone ?
