Huge priority in assessing what Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch must do next

Come 6pm on Sunday, May 22, it was a case of mission accomplished as United sealed their Premier League survival as part of a nail-biting final day.

But Leeds also recruited Marsch with a view to a long-term vision and the summer will now present the American with an opportunity to fulfil the next most pressing briefs.

By some considerable margin, strengthening the squad is top of the list.

The discussions about the size of squad and specific players that Marsch's predecessor Marcelo Bielsa wanted can rumble on but the facts are that Leeds were left painfully thin for the season run-in.

Injuries were clearly a huge stumbling block but the overriding factor was the thinness of the squad, something which must be addressed as the first port of call this summer and director of football Victor Orta could do with a strong window of landing gems.

Raphinha has been the brightest jewel landed by United's director of football and now comes the time to find a few more as part of the summer that is likely to see the Brazilian international exit the club and probably to Barcelona.

That star dust will need replacing whilst Marsch will be left with another big hole if Kalvin Phillips departs which hopefully will not be the case.

Especially with the versatile Stuart Dallas out, centre-back looks about the only position where Leeds appear strongly covered and the Whites must ensure that both quantity and quality are brought in for Marsch's first crack with 'his' squad.

Marsch plays a very different system to Bielsa via his often preferred 4-2-2-2-1 formation in which the two men supporting the striker are often deployed as narrow attacking midfielders as opposed to wingers.

His system calls for alterations and getting the right personnel to perfect his system will be a key next task, especially given another high priority of getting more out of Leeds as an attacking force.

Marsch has tried to make United harder to break down with his use of a double midfield pivot in front of the back four and narrower set up.

With man marking abandoned, Leeds are now a tighter and more compact team.

But the Whites have only netted ten goals in Marsch's 12 games in charge and that must improve in order for Leeds to take notable steps forward next term but in addition to making continued improvements defensively too as United still conceded 19 from Marsch's dozen games for the run-in.

Then there is the small matter of continuing to bed in, developing his bond and relationship with United's players - and the fan base.

Success will ultimately determine the latter and the summer will be key to enabling that to happen.