Kalvin Phillips’ key role for Leeds United as Jesse Marsch seeks to strike right balance

It is why he will need England midfielder Kalvin Phillips to raise his game after a first start of 2022 at Crystal Palace on Monday.

Marsch already has first-hand knowledge of how Manchester City can destroy teams and Pep Guardiola’s side come to Elland Road at the weekend knowing they cannot afford to drop points with Liverpool breathing down their necks in the race for the Premier League title.

Whether City will even end this season as the best team in this country is still in the balance but they or Liverpool could yet be crowned European and English champions.

Having faced City in this season’s Champions League group stage, though, Marsch has already made his mind up about them.

“For me the best team in the world are coming to Elland Road,” he said.

“This season already one of my teams (RB Leipzig) has played against Man City and I know what a challenge that game is, I know how difficult it is to limit their best players from making good plays and their movement and ideas of what to do with the ball.

“We will have to be incredibly effective and clear in how we want to play against the ball, we will have to find ways to control the game with the ball a little bit more and in transition moments be more dangerous and effective. And still on set pieces find a way to be more aggressive.”

City won September’s match 6-3 but the current Leeds side are in a different place to the Bundesliga team.

Then, as now, Marsch was new in his job, but he has made a much better first impression in West Yorkshire than he did in East Germany.

There, he went into the game on the back of a 4-0 thumping at home to Bayern Munich, and had taken three points from a possible 12 at the start of the season.

Website Breakingthelines.com wrote about how “a really naive defensive setup” was in the defeat, “constantly getting pulled across and pulled apart” in the first half at Eastlands. Marsch was sacked just before December’s return fixture.

Since Marsch took over at Leeds in February, they have gone from horribly naive themselves to keeping clean sheets in their last two matches. United are unbeaten in their last five games under the American.

“We’re asking the team to be more compact and that’s one of the reason’s we’re not giving up so many chances and so many goals,” explained Marsch, who replaced Marcelo Bielsa.

“It’s because we’re not spread out all over the pitch and allowing opponents to win balls and attack us straight down the middle.

“We’re more compact so when we play we can create options, but when we lose it we can create some pressure.

“There’s some moments when we’re man-marking phases but we’re trying to break out of that more and more. It’s normal that it’s going to take a little bit of time.”

On the other hand, Leeds posed little attacking threat at Selhurst Park on Monday, Marsch’s frantic football making it harder for either team to play with the ball. He knows Leeds need to improve that aspect.

“I think having Kalvin back can help us,” Marsch said of the midfielder who made his name as a deep-lying playmaker under Bielsa. “Having his first game back and playing in the new system from the start, he’ll understand his role and movements and ideas more and more.

“I think he can be a big part in our solutions in the build-up phase that can get our attacking players into more dangerous spots.”

With Chelsea and Arsenal to follow Man City, a Leeds team not yet safe from relegation will need their talisman to rise to the challenge.