One is an American in his first few months in English football. There is another interim coach who unexpectedly adds to his first experience of top-flight management. The other was not so long ago an elite player vying for the biggest trophies in the game.
The men leading the three clubs – Leeds, Burnley and Everton – engaged in a tense battle to avoid relegation from the Premier League, are far from typical managers English teams will default once the crisis hits.
Like Sam Allardyce or Tony Cop. With decades of top-flight experience, and a perceived ability to score enough points to sustain a team and organize a defense, managers in the ’60s did and did.
Instead, the boardrooms of struggling Premier League teams have bucked the trend.
Take Burnley for example. Less than a month later, American ownership of the club made a surprise move to oust Shaun Dyche., the longest-serving manager in the league and a man whose practical approach defines the team. He was not replaced by someone famous as a survival specialist – or “firefighter”, as he is sometimes called – but instead Mike Jackson, who had been working on Burnley’s under-23 team for the past nine months. were coaching and there were very few. As manager in lower league in 2014 and 2020.
Jackson has changed Burnley’s style of play, bringing three wins and five games to a draw and a shot at survival with a more aggressive mindset.
Then there’s Leeds, which brought in American coach Jesse Marsh in February after the tough decision to let go of Marcelo Bielsa, a popular manager who brought the team back to the Premier League after a 16-year absence and, like Diache, a Established unique approach that stopped working.
Marsh’s favorite style – having been involved in the Red Bull Project for the past seven years in roles in Raiders and Heavy Pressure, New York, Salzburg and Leipzig – didn’t seem to chime in with what was needed in a potential relegation scrap at Leeds.
What Marsh has really done is tighten the back, even though a series of defensive mistakes contributed to the 2-1 loss at Arsenal To leave the team in the bottom three on Sunday.
Everton form a trio of relegation batsmen separated by only one point with two weeks of the season remaining and are led by former England midfielder Frank Lampard, whose only Premier League management experience was at his old club, Chelsea. where he had gone. He was fired a year and a half past his limits as a tactic.
Like Jackson and Marsh, Lampard has abandoned the team’s previous style to fulfill his current position. Everton now takes a defence-first approach and plays on the counterattack, with three wins and one draw from their last five matches – a loss that came after a difficult performance at title-chasing Liverpool – to see the team in the bottom three. take out from.
Meanwhile, 74-year-old Roy Hodgson, a manager with a reputation for preventing teams from being relegated, was unable to prevent Watford from sinking back into the second-tier championship after being hired in January. Watford’s allegation was confirmed on Saturday.
Last season, Allardyce – then 66 years old – was drafted by West Bromwich Albion in a desperate bid to help the team avoid a drop in the middle of a Premier League campaign, but he failed to do so. was not able to. This ended Allardyce’s proud record of never taking a team down from England’s top division in 30 years as a manager.
So it is no surprise that struggling clubs are turning their backs and wanting to be more adventurous with their managerial appointments.
Leeds, Burnley or Everton are sure to join Watford and Norwich in the championship, but whoever can say the least that his change in manager has made a positive difference. In fact, Lampard and Marsh have said that whatever happens in the days ahead, they will stay at their respective clubs.
Leeds looks to be in most danger, with matches against Chelsea on Wednesday followed by Brighton and Brentford.
Burnley are out of the relegation zone due to only goal difference and still have to play Tottenham, Aston Villa and Newcastle.
Everton, coming from back-to-back victories against Chelsea and Leicester, looks to be in better shape, especially since he has a game in hand – already at Watford on Wednesday. Brentford, Crystal Palace and Arsenal are its last three opponents.
,
More Associated Press Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
,
Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
,
