Jesse Marsch now shares what he really wanted to do with Weston McKennie at Leeds

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Weston McKennie’s time at Leeds was nothing short of a disaster.

The American really didn’t perform for the Whites after joining on loan from Juventus last January, but things could have turned out so differently.

Indeed, McKennie was initially brought in to play under Jesse Marsch, a manager who rated him highly and was also an American.

However, after McKennie had played just half a game in a Leeds shirt, Marsch was sacked and the Juventus loanee ended up playing aimlessly under both Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce.

Marsch did have a plan for how to use McKennie at Leeds, and speaking on the Call It What You Want Podcast, the former Leeds boss has shared his original plan for McKennie at Elland Road.

Marsch’s plan for McKennie

Marsch spoke about how he would’ve used McKennie.

“Yeah so when we brought Weston McKennie to Leeds the idea was that when he was against the ball and out of possession he was going to play deeper in the number eight position and then with the ball he would be in the number 10 spot,” Marsch said.

“Weston, for me, has the flexibility to play deeper, but it’s encouraging the discipline of what to do and where. One of the beauties of Weston is his flexibility and I saw it a lot in Germany when he was at Schalke that he could play as an eight, a six, a wing-back, second striker, number 10, he has that flexibility, and that’s because his instincts to play the game were really good.”

What could have been

We’re not going to sit here and romanticise Marsch as a manager or McKennie as a player. After all, they were both poor for Leeds, but we can’t help but wonder what could have been here.

McKennie was terrible for Leeds, but at the same time, there’s a talented player in there – you don’t get signed for Juventus if you’re useless.

Marsch could’ve got more out of McKennie, and who knows? Perhaps a fully motivated McKennie playing under a manager who knew and trusted him could have helped Leeds stay up last season.

Sacking Marsch just days after landing such a key signing for him always seemed like a very strange move from Leeds.