3 Reasons Jesse Marsch Isn’t Acutally A Great Fit For The USMNT

After one false start already, it’s unclear exactly where American manager Jesse Marsch will end up next.

After he was fired by Leeds United last week, a reported potential move to take over fellow relegation fighters Southampton fell through in negotiations over contract length, according to numerous reports. So Marsch remains on the market. But he probably won’t be by the summer, when it’s expected the U.S. Soccer Federation will have its new sporting director in place to hire its next manager.

As a result, there’s a good segment of the American soccer public who believes the USSF is missing a critical chance to land the best possible candidate to lead the USMNT through the 2026 FIFA World Cup cycle. And Marsch is certainly the most visible and highest achieving active American coach in the world at present

But that doesn’t automatically mean Marsch is the best choice for the job, or even the best American choice, given how different the demands of coaching an international squad can be from the club game. And even if he’s still free in the summer, there’s three reasons to at least consider the idea he might not be the best fit.

1) A deficit of national team experience

Most candidates for the United States job aren’t likely to have head coaching experience with a national team. But Marsch also only had two appearances as an American player, no meaningful youth national team playing experience, and only a brief run as USMNT assistant toward the end of Bob Bradley’s head coaching tenure.

This isn’t automatically disqualifying, but it suggests a possible learning curve to adjust to the rhythm and nuances of managing personnel and tactics should he get the job. And it’s a learning curve that probably wouldn’t be as steep for some other quality candidates.

Hugo Perez was an American international player, has experience in the U.S. youth national team as a coach, and then earned positive reviews for how he handled an overmatched El Salvador team in the final round of 2022 Concacaf World Cup Qualifying. Current LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo is one of the most-capped defenders in USMNT history. Even Tata Martino has two previous stints as a national team manager, including his most recent guiding Mexico through the 2022 cycle.

And Marsch’s lack of international chops have the potential to be magnified based on the next two issues.

2) Too long spent in the Red Bull system

It’s easy to forget Marsch had a coaching career prior to his long run in the Red Bull Football Group, first taking the reins of the Montreal Impact as the club’s first MLS manager in 2011. His time with the New York Red Bulls did not begin until 2015.

But from that point on, Marsch has mostly coached in that 4-2-2-2 system Red Bulls pressing system, achieving his biggest successes in New York and then at Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga. After a brief, unsuccessful spell at the Bundesliga’s RB Leipzig, he was an attractive hire at Leeds in part because the roster was built under previous manager Marcelo Bielsa with pressing in mind. The same might have been true at Southampton, which parted with another former RBFG manager earlier this season in Ralph Hasenhuttl.

It’s not certain that Marsch would bring the same approach to the USMNT if he landed the job. But if that was his intention, it could be problematic.

The thing about any more rigid system coach is he or she is going to need specific kinds of talents from players to fill roles. On the club level, you can search those talents out and sign the right players to the right contract. At the national team, you’re much less control of the talent pool you are choosing from. And being beholden to one style of play is more likely to narrow your talent pool than widen it.

Gregg Berhalter was also a system coach as he led the team through the 2022 cycle, albeit a different kind. And he was criticized occasionally for not including some players who achieved high levels of success at their clubs, because they didn’t fit well into a role in the 4-3-3.

You might argue Marsch’s 4-2-2-2 is a better fit for the current USMNT talent pool than Berhalter’s 4-3-3. But at the same time, it’s an approach that is heavily reliant on fitness levels — even relative to the norm in pro soccer — and that’s an extremely tough thing to control as a national team coach who only spends a handful of weeks with his players a year.

3) Relationships with Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena

In the wake of a recent scandal involving 2022 World Cup coach Gregg Berhalter, USMNT midfielder Giovanni Reyna and both men’s families, one common conclusion was that the culture of the whole program had become too insular.

Marsch doesn’t have a ton of history with Berhalter, but he has loads with one former U.S. national team manager and a little bit with another. Both men are still MLS coaches and active in American player development. So the public could percieve Marsch as yet another hire too close to the traditional USMNT inner circle.

Marsch played for former USMNT and current Toronto FC manager Bob Bradley at Princeton in the early and mid 1990s. He did so again when Bradley was assistant at D.C. United, then again when Bradley was head coach of the expansion Chicago Fire. In total, the pair spent a consecutive decade together in a player-coach relationship. And then Marsch again served as Bradley’s USMNY assistant.

Marsch also played two seasons for former USMNT and current New England Revolution manager Bruce Arena at D.C. United. And Arena also was the first coach to call Marsch in for one of his two national team caps.