Credit: Imago and YouTube

Richie Mills

Fri 20 March 2026 14:40, UK

Leeds United‘s frustrating affiliation with Jesse Marsch is continuing after the American said the Ted Lasso comparisons didn’t help during his tenure – but neither did his woeful tactics.

Marsch became the third American to manage in the Premier League, following Bob Bradley and German-born American David Wagner.

But just under a year into his time at Elland Road, he was sacked by Leeds in February 2023 with the Whites 17th in the table and out of the relegation zone on goal difference.

Their last win in the Premier League came on 5 November 2022, as Marsch’s summer signings failed to deliver, with Leeds eventually going down with a whimper that season.

Marsch has now said that being likened to fictional American coach Ted Lasso didn’t help his cause but once again, he appears to be lacking introspection on his unsuccessful Leeds tenure.

Jesse Marsch refuses to acknowledge his own shortcomings

Time and time again, Marsch has spoken about how the “underlying data” has suggested Leeds should have been higher in the table. Now, he has spoken about the Lasso comparisons.

He told GIVEMESPORT: “Ted Lasso probably doesn’t help. I talked about Ted Lasso right away to kind of get it out of the way. It was funny because Ted Lasso was also out when I was in Germany [with Leipzig], but nobody called me Ted Lasso.

“I spoke German and nobody talked about my accent there. Nobody even talked about me being American. I think there was a prejudice against me, but I didn’t let it deter me. It almost motivated me even more.

“That’s kind of how I am. I deal better with criticism than I do with praise. There were some things happening on the inside [at Leeds]. I’m not going to go into it, but there were definitely things that I experienced that I couldn’t believe.”

However, the former Red Bull Salzburg boss seemed to be incapable of preventing the issues that kept cropping up during his Leeds spell.

Despite Sam Allardyce’s recent claims, Marsch’s Leeds had the best running stats in the Premier League, with his team covering 111.9 kilometres per match. And yes, he did keep them up the season prior on the last day of the campaign.

But when he was dismissed, they had won just twice in 17 league games. His players repeatedly ran around like headless chickens, as his instructions for Leeds to play narrowly led to a congested mess.

Time and time again, opposition players were free at the back post for simple goals, and a handful of his wins were very fortuitous. Indeed, in a 2-1 victory against basement side Norwich City, they got a last-minute winner at Elland Road.

Had it not been for a debatable red card against Wolves when 2-0 down, the 3-2 comeback that followed would most likely not have happened. And for their final day win at Brentford, the Bees went down to nine men as they squeaked out a crucial three points and relied on Newcastle United to beat Burnley to stay up.

There never seemed to be a clear, successful game plan under Marsch. Players were specifically signed to suit his system but they were underwhelming. Leeds lacked any real strategy despite having plenty of time to bed in Marsch’s methods.

The Lasso comparisons are puerile and arguably discriminatory. But it was his shortcomings as a coach and general myopia that defined his Leeds legacy, not a fictional TV character.

Daniel Farke is the calming figure Leeds need

To Marsch’s credit, he did acknowledge that current Leeds boss Daniel Farke has done a good job at keeping everyone at the Whites grounded, despite it being an “emotional” club.

When asked about their chances of staying up, Marsch added, “It will be a challenge. Leeds is a big club. It’s a very emotional club.

“When you’re the manager there, one of the keys is just to try and maintain calm and patience, and I think Daniel has done a pretty good job of that.”

Farke will need to use all his calm and managerial nous to keep Leeds in the Premier League, with the Whites just three points above the bottom three.

His reassuring demeanour when other heads around him are losing their cool has been very helpful during their current relegation battle in addition to their Championship promotion last year.

They have some winnable games coming up, and if he wants to not have another Premier League relegation on his CV, he needs to be at his best.