Leeds United's Michael Skubala checks in for a game of chess as instant Manchester United return looms

Although Jesse Marsch and Marcelo Bielsa got Leeds United playing in very different ways, there was a common helter-skelter thread. In Bielsa's case, players could attack from just about anywhere, under Marsch it was almost as if he was trying to force the ball all the way down the middle of the pitch.

Michael Skubala is different again, as seen at Old Trafford on Wednesday. It adds an interesting element to Sunday's Elland Road return match against Manchester United.

There was plenty of intensity about Leeds' football in midweek, and when Tyler Adams and Pascal Struijk ambushed Bruno Fernandes in the first minute en route to Willy Gnonto's opening goal, serene was the last word that sprang to mind.

But at the same time, there seemed to be a more controlled manner in the 2-2 draw.

Skubala has certainly been much less garrulous than Marsch in this week’s pre- and post-match press conferences. The pauses before his answers give an impression of studiousness which along with their often uncomplicated brevity do him no harm whatsoever.

Perhaps that explains why he sees Sunday’s challenge as he does.

To face the same opponent twice in half a week is unusual and in an era of rotatable squads throws up interesting tactical challenges.

Skubala won some important battles in Manchester, asking his players to return to almost Bielsaesque width after the narrowness of Marsch.

Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag would not have known quite what to expect from Leeds but now he does. So does Skubala change a formula that worked well to give him something else to think about, or stick with what made his team the first to escape Old Trafford with a draw in 14 matches?

"Probably the biggest challenge of a head coach in these moments is to think about what the other head coach is going to do, a bit like a game of chess, especially playing back-to-back games," reflects Skubala.

"That's where I have to be calm and strong in my decisions to believe in what we can do as a team and focus on our strengths.

"Like before there may be one or two tweaks, but nothing we can change majorly with the time we have with the players. They’ve got three games over seven days so it's about recovery and regeneration, but if we can get some work done on Saturday, a bit of shape, maybe...

"There's no point me changing that much because there's some really good things about this team that were built before and it's about taking those good things and maybe put a little bit of my stamp on the team."

One change will be enforced due to Struijk's concussion but Skubala was characteristically cagey when asked if Liam Cooper and Marc Roca would have recovered sufficiently from muscle injuries which kept them out in midweek, and on Luis Sinisterra's hamstring.

It is hard to imagine him being anything but calm, whatever he might be thinking after being thrown in at the deep end as recruiting a replacement for Marsch proves much harder than the Elland Road hierarchy seemed to expect.

Skubala’s reference to shape is a nod to his Wednesday-night comment about having just 20 minutes to work on that in his only day on the training ground with his players beforehand.

But although Skubala is a novice first-team coach, he is not a novice coach. There is a big difference.

"I think I've been preparing for 20 years (for this moment)," he says. "Coaching is coaching and I didn't take any other angle to it than that.

"If I can set the team up and the team can perform that was my priority.

"I think the part of a head coach is to lead a group of players and a staff to coach on and off the pitch, to get players into a good place to perform. Coaching is creating players not robots and I want them to be players.

"In such a busy week, most of the individual coaching is conversations with the players around video, clips and the slight tactical changes we might want or don't want. I’ve had good meetings with all the players and the leadership group."

Journalists almost feel contractually obliged to ask a caretaker coach if he has aspirations to drop the first part of that job description, but as soon as they do, Skubala is back to playing chess.

"I've always had the philosophy look after today and tomorrow looks after itself," he says. "I just want to do the best job I can in the moment. Through my career that's all I've ever done and hopefully people that have worked with me or people that have led me will say good things."

And whilst Skubala might not be domineering, there is no question he was in charge on Wednesday. The caretaker team was billed as a collective leadership with Paco Gallardo and Chris Armas but it was very clear who was in charge.

"It depends what you mean by forceful," he says when asked if he has that in him. "If that means making strong decisions then I've no problem with that. I think I am a strong decision-maker.

"Shouting and being aggressive, I don't think it means that. It's more about making strong decisions at the right time."

You move, Erik.