YouTuber Conor McGilligan has urged Leeds United to avoid a “U-turn in strategy” and go and hire Ralph Hasenhuttl as the club’s new manager.
What’s the word?
Interim boss Michael Skubala will remain in charge for this weekend’s home clash against Manchester United, having overseen the mid-week draw against the Red Devils.
Despite that, with Jesse Marsch now sacked, the Whites are on the lookout to hire a new manager as soon as possible. However, certain targets have already ruled them out of contention.
For instance, Feyenoord manager Arne Slot has committed himself to his current job amid talk that Leeds could be trying to bring him in.
With that in mind, while talking on the One Leeds Fan Channel, McGilligan urged the club to keep looking for a new type of manager instead of hiring someone similar to Marsch, such as Hasenhuttl – who has been mentioned in the media as a possibility.
He said: “I’m just really hoping they don’t go down the Ralph Hasenhuttl route, because that, for me, would be a complete U-turn in strategy, philosophy, idea.
“They’ve been looking at [Marcelo] Gallardo, they’ve been looking at Arne Slot, they’ve be looking at – publicly, as well – [Andoni] Iraola, who were very, very different to the Red Bull system.
“So, Leeds are to trying to move away from that. If they went to Ralph Hasenhuttl now, they clearly just don’t know what they’re doing. There’s no strategy, there’s no tactical plan. It seems like it’s all PR. So that’s the problem.”
Do you want Ralph Hasenhuttl at Leeds?
Yes
No
Time for a change
As alluded to by McGilligan, Hasenhuttl is similar to Marsch in the fact that both men have built their reputations as coaches with Red Bull-affiliated football clubs.
Indeed, before joining Leeds, the American worked for clubs such as New York Red Bulls, RB Leipzig, and RB Salzburg – while Hasenhuttl spent two seasons at Leipzig.
As a result, both men seem to enjoy playing the narrow 4-2-2-2 formation with the Whites often using that setup during Marsch’s time in charge. And so, if the club do hire Hasenhuttl, you can expect thing to tactically remain fairly similar.
Seeing as the club have tried to hire other managers first, however, it sounds as though this isn’t Plan A. And so it will be interesting to see if the Leeds hierarchy change their approach and go in for the former Southampton boss in the face of rejection from preferred targets such as Slot.
