The most American Premier League team, Leeds United, has sacked their American head coach Jesse Marsch. Oddly enough Marsch’s sacking comes at a time when the team is seemingly getting more American with the arrival of Weston McKennie. The move was actually met with some surprise amongst the British media. Even though on paper Marsch’s results as the head man at Elland Road certainly warrant his dismissal.
With Marsch no longer employed in the Premier League does this mean it’s going to be harder for other American coaches to get jobs in Europe? Marsch’s road to the Premier League actually does seem replicable by other American coaches. Sadly for Marsch his time at Leeds may not be memorable enough to warrant him getting other chances in the Premier League. However, he had much better results at Red Bull Salzburg. That’s what he can fall back on to try and land another gig.
American Coaches Being Exported By Red Bull or The Man City Group
The Jesse Marsch path is actually replicable. This means that there’s a wide possibility that we see more of these real life Ted Lasso stories. Marsch made his way to Europe thanks to his time as the head coach of the New York Red Bulls MLS team. From there he made the jump to Red Bull Salzburg where, as we mentioned, he had his best seasons as a coach in Europe. His performance was so good in fact that he got the chance to coach what’s essentially the top Red Bull team, RB Leipzig, in Germany. His time in the Bundesliga though was not as successful as his time in Austria.
We’re not saying that there’s going to be a massive influx in the number of American coaches working in European clubs. The path though is there for many to get the chance. Just like Marsch with Red Bull, coaches for the New York City or Orlando City MLS franchises could technically move up the ranks of that particular group. Ultimately we could see an American coach replace Pep Guardiola. Seems like a long shot at this point, but you never know. This is not to take anything away from Marsch who was really successful in Austria, but it does help that American business conglomerates are buying European clubs and looking to bring on American players and coaches. We’ve even criticized Spanish clubs bought by Mexican business for not playing their Mexican-born players. It doesn’t make any sense.
The Premier League Does Seem Like The Right Goal For American Coaches
Although Jesse Marsch was certainly not overly successful in the Premier League it does seem like it’s the top competition that’s best suited for American coaches. The American game has always been modeled more after the British game than the Spanish or the Italian one for that matter. It’s a physical game that tends to be very direct with long passes making up the bulk of the strategy. That’s not to say that American coaches could not be successful in Spain, Italy or even Germany for that matter. It’s just that the style of play in England is generally similar to what we see in the US.
Marsch may have a tough time getting another chance in the Premier League. As previously stated his results didn’t blow anyone away for sure. It’s not like this experiment should close the door for American coaches abroad either. The issue is that in many ways there has to be a commercial benefit in bringing on an American coach to your team at this point. There’s not necessarily too many American coaches that could reach the top of European soccer on talent alone. With these connections though through the aforementioned groups and even 49ers enterprises at Leeds United there could be more opportunities to come!
