Jesse Marsch's latest task as Leeds United boss begins with vote-winning man-management ploy

Leeds United return to action on Sunday afternoon following a 29-day break since their last senior fixture at Brentford.

While the Under-21 side will have played two matches during that period, football has been sparse since the beginning of the month.

There is set to be a sharp polarisation between Leeds’ October schedule and their barren September with no fewer than ten fixtures currently scheduled over the next month.

Leeds’ first-team will contest six games during a four-week period spanning from October 2 until October 29, while the Under-21 group have four matches, although United’s youngsters are currently scheduled to play Middlesbrough’s Under-21s on the same day Leeds face Fulham in the Premier League – the former a fixture likely to be moved as a result.

During such a prolonged period out of action, Leeds’ players have been afforded time off, but have also played out intra-squad friendlies at Thorp Arch in order to retain match sharpness, as revealed by USMNT international Brenden Aaronson.

Club football’s hiatus has permitted several first-team players the opportunity to regain full fitness ahead of what could prove to be an exceedingly busy period in the lead up to another mid-season break for the 2022 World Cup.

As a result, fringe members of United’s squad could find themselves in something of a footballing limbo, squeezed out of first-team contention by a fully-available senior squad, but deemed essential enough not to be risked in Under-21 football.

That said, under a new regime the Under-21s may once again become a haven for first-teamers dropping down to retain match sharpness, as it was during the club’s successful 2020/21 campaign.

Raphinha, Kalvin Phillips, Rodrigo and even Pablo Hernandez were weaned back to Premier League match readiness by making appearances in Under-21 competition, while this season Mateusz Klich, Adam Forshaw, Patrick Bamford, Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling and Junior Firpo have all made at least one appearance for the junior side.

Opportunities will arise for the likes of Joe Gelhardt, Sam Greenwood, Crysencio Summerville, Cody Drameh and Leo Hjelde, too – widely regarded as young players considered members of an extended first-team squad, too.

Doubts over the fitness of Under-21s’ central defender Jeremiah Mullen and left-back Keenan Carole should open doors for Norway youth international Hjelde to drop down and fill in, while the occasional, dazzling Summerville appearance in Premier League 2 Division 2 will go a long way to helping the Under-21s achieve their unspoken goal of promotion.

Cody Drameh’s status as third-choice right-back should mean he features at youth level, until January at least, so long as Luke Ayling and Rasmus Kristensen remain fit and available for selection by Jesse Marsch.

An Under-21 side comprised of Drameh, Hjelde, Summerville, England Under-19 pair Darko Gyabi and Sonny Perkins, the prodigious Archie Gray, as well as five-goal centre-forward Mateo Joseph is enough to rival any youth side in Leeds’ division.

Factor in Norway Under-21 goalkeeper Kristoffer Klaesson, Netherlands Under-19 stopper Dani van den Heuvel – when he returns from injury, of course – and blossoming local custodian Harry Christy as the team’s goalkeeping options, and Leeds boast a formidable reserve team.

That is without considering over the course of a month, certain first-team players will inevitably go unused and the proliferation of Under-21 games gives Marsch a simple solution to keeping minutes in the legs of those he may need to call on from the bench during senior matchdays.

New contracts for Summerville, Greenwood and Gelhardt this summer undoubtedly came with the promise of greater first-team involvement, something Dutch winger Summerville referenced during new Amazon Prime Video documentary series ‘Academy Dreams’.

With a fully fit senior group available to him, Jesse Marsch may find a bloated Leeds squad for the first time since his arrival with multiple selection dilemmas to resolve, as well as minutes, egos and morale to be managed.

The American has insisted there is much more to his role than simply picking a starting XI and leading training.

Repeatedly, he has asserted in press conferences that it is ‘the people’ which make or break a manager, and determine their success, and that ‘good players make good managers’.

So far, Marsch has managed relationships with aplomb; his latest decision to grant players based at Thorp Arch during the international break a period of rest and recovery away from the training ground last weekend a sure-fire vote-winner.

Keeping smiles on faces is just another task for Marsch as Leeds boss.

Of the recent figureheads residing in the office the American’s name currently adorns, he appears best-suited to this latest test of his managerial acumen.

Another 29 days will reveal the strategy he chooses to adopt.