American Resurgence: Here Come Leeds United

We are just two weeks into the Premier League season. However, Leeds United, the team that lost its two most influential players and was nearly relegated, seems to have found a new gear.

When Jesse Marsch took over Marcelo Bielsa in the middle of last season, he had one task, keep Leeds United in the Premier League. Jesse Marsch signed a contract with the club for five years and was given an insurmountable task in the first few months of his reign. On the final day of the season, a loss by Burnley at Turf Moor and a crucial victory that included a stoppage-time goal from Jack Harrison against Brentford kept this storied club in England’s top flight.

On the final day of last season, Leeds looked like it was on its way back down to the Championship, but the American found a way to bring life to a club that found itself regressing quite a bit in his second consecutive season in the top flight.

The days of Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips are in the past. The New Jersey native Brenden Aaronson has brought the spark to a team, netting a goal in his first appearance for the club against Wolves.

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In his first outing in the English top flight, Aaronson began to prove why Leeds paid such a large transfer fee to bring him over from RB Salzburg. His creativity, calmness in the final third, and quickness with the ball at his feet are just the beginning of what the American can do in one of the world’s most gruesome football leagues. Most of the time, it takes players from different European leagues quite some time to adjust to what the Premier League presents to an individual on a game-to-game basis.

Before the season even began, Marsch knew Aaronson was special, stating, “I said to Brenden, when he came to Salzburg [at 19 from the Philadelphia Union], in the first few training sessions I thought, Brenden’s in over his head, this might take a while...But I invested in him with video and had a lot of conversations, and kept putting him in good training environments...And within three weeks, he was one of the best players on the team. I mean, that is incredibly unique, but it says everything about Brenden.”

Last season, Leeds did not win a contest until its fifth of the season. With over €113 million coming in from the Phillips and Raphinha transfers, Leeds brought in six new faces, including three that featured in the Bundesliga last season. After two weekends of Premier League football, Rodrigo Moreno leads the English top-flight in goals with three, including two in a 2-2 draw against Southampton on the road.

Even though Marsch’s side blew a two-goal lead at St. Mary’s, there seems to be a new life at Elland Road after a turbulent season in 2021-22. It may have been a situation where Marsch and his team wasted a good performance on the road, dropping two points. Still, the quality on the pitch is far better than what was the product last season.

Rodrigo has begun to pick up the slack in the goal department, having netted just six goals in 31 games last season. Patrick Bamford going out of the contest against Southampton is not the sight that this club wants to see, but if he cannot stay on the field, Leeds needs to look elsewhere to fill that No. 9 role the rest of the way.

Chelsea is next on the schedule, which should be a wake-up call for this club, but the amount of momentum in their favor should help challenge the Blues as much as possible. Even though it is extremely early in the season, Leeds is top-five in expected goals and top-four in shots on targets percentage. Both of United’s goals against the Saints were on set-pieces. It cannot be ignored right now that with the quality of service, and determination in front of the net, Leeds can provide headaches for any team on free and corner kicks.

After the draw against Southampton, Marsch spoke on the performance and the direction of the team, stating, “I think most of the performance earned us more than that...But, you need total performances in this league, we’re still young and developing as a group...We know we have even more potential, so, you can look at it half empty or half full, I always look at half full and know that we’re starting to come together in an amazing way...There is still so much more room for improvement.”

The combination of Aaronson, Rodrigo, and Harrison as the three in the 4-2-3-1 makes United as lethal as it has been in the Premier League. With Daniel James being able to stretch the backline of any opposition on top of Rodygo finding the pockets going forward, Leeds had plenty of ways to find the back of the net. In the first match of the season, United went down one goal just six minutes into the campaign, but there seemed to be little to no panic as the character of this team was demonstrated in the first test it encountered.

In just two contests so far this year, Leeds has gone through blowing a lead and coming back from one in its first match in front of its home fans. The fairly favorable schedule in the coming months against teams that are either new to the Premier League this season or struggling to find their footing only gives Leeds more confidence when the toughest part of the campaign begins.

After United takes on Chelsea, Leeds has seven consecutive contests (other than the EFL Cup match against Barnsley) against teams that were either at the bottom of the table last season, were not in the top flight, or struggling to find their identity.

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The heart and effort are evident early in the season. However, the key is for this young group to continue to grow and gain more and more confidence under a manager that is changing the perspective of American coaches in European football around the world. Adding some experience should be the task for Marsch going forward in the transfer market, with 18 of the 28 players on the first team under 25.

Leeds is still awaiting two of its core pieces, Luke Ayling and Stuart Dallas, to come back from injury. But after a massive positive coming out of training, Dallas and even Ayling are moving in the right direction, according to Marsch.

The 23-year-old winger Luis Sinisterra came over from Feyenoord Rotterdam during the summer after a stellar season in the Dutch top flight and the Conference League, netting 23 goals and 14 assists in all competitions.

Sinisterra came off the bench for Leeds against the Saints, but the potential and quality he showed in the Conference League run for Feyenoord, combined with the amount Leeds paid for him over the summer, should lead to him becoming a key part of what Marsch’s crew does going forward. It may be difficult for him to find time with how valuable Harrison is on the left side of the attack for Leeds, but if Marsch can get some rotation between these two, United could be onto something.

Not many people expect Leeds to continue the quality it is showing on the pitch early on. The collapse may bring it down to earth, but the performance over the first 60 minutes against Southampton and the comeback over Wolves show that Leeds is not going to go down to the Championship without a fight.

Youth could hurt Leeds in the future, and possessing some experience in a long season is valuable on and off the pitch. However, there will be a moment during the season when Leeds is tested more. The question is if this young team has what it takes to rebound after more than just one obstacle sits in their way late in the season.

After 16 seasons out of the Premier League and knowing what it feels like almost to lose it all at the end of last season, Marsch is more determined as ever to prove that not only does he belong at this level, but Leeds is here to stay.