More and more American players are playing in Europe, but that hasn't spurred more respect for American managers in the game. Only one person remains in the Big 5 leagues after today. After just four months, Jesse Marsch has been shitcanned.
Marsch was supposed to be the one who would make a fist of it as a manager. From New York to Salzburg, he was brought through the Red Bull system. He oversaw the rise of several players who were sold to bigger clubs, including Erling Halaand, Patson Daka, Takumi Minamino, and Hwang Hee-chan. The way Red Bull operate all of their clubs, selling off players for big fees to finance the next crop is a major tenet of the job. Marsch didn't make it out of the group stage in the competition, but his teams played swashbuckling football. He was ready to take the top club in the system on, and that was the Red Bull way.
It didn't work out that way. Marsch was behind the eight-ball before his team even started, as their best defender, Dayot Upamecano, was sold to Munich, and he was joined by the captain of the team. The majority of the second-place team ripped out that spine. There have been a lot of new signings this year, which made it difficult for the team to stay cohesive.
Marsch isn't sure if that makes a difference, as he was pretty defensively poor. They have only kept five clean sheets in 21 matches. In their last game, they beat Club Brugge in the last game of the group stage, and they also put up a touchdown on Hertha Berlin. They could also be ridden quickly. They were touched up for four goals. Manchester City scored a touchdown.
The spotlight on Marsch might not have been completely fair. The six goals that City scored in the first game is always going to look bad. Losing at home is a black eye. The home team outplayed the away team pretty thoroughly and only got a 2-2 draw thanks to some poor finishing. They would still be alive for going through in a group with two of the richest clubs in the world.
The xGA was 13th in the league, and the underlying numbers suggest there wasn't anything wrong with the attack. The new recruits didn't really fit the high-pressing, chaotic style that the old recruits had used. According to this thread, Marsch seemed to recognize that quickly. The field gets torn through a lot more often as Leipzig try to press high up the field. Marsch tried to do a lot at the club after he replaced Nagelsmann. Without Upamecano, the pace in defense is not the same. It probably didn't help Marsch's cause that Nagelsmann has kept Munich at their standard, causing fans of their former hero to look at their former hero.
Marsch is going to be remembered a lot like Bob Bradley's attempt at the premier league, before there was time to unpack the moving boxes. If Marsch wants to get another job in Europe, his success at Salzburg should suffice. The Red Bull system might be more important to his success than his own coaching.
MLS is a fertile breeding ground for players to hop across the pond, but it is not yet a proving ground for coaches. It is a unique atmosphere to navigate that really isn't replicated anywhere else, because of the weird scheduling, the playoff system that can reward or punish a team randomly, and the financial/transfer rules. Marsch was able to make the jump to Austria with the help of the most talented squad in that country.
While American players have been able to shed the stigma associated withYanks by European football, you get the feeling any managerial candidates may still be viewed through a "Lasso" lens. Marsch will not help that.
