The Leeds United men Jesse Marsch can task with rattling nice guy Ralph Hasenhuttl's Southampton

Given their respective reputations in the game, it’s no surprise that their history is a pleasant, friendly one.

Southampton’s manager is a ‘really good guy’ according to Jurgen Klopp, a sentiment echoed by Thomas Tuchel who said of the Austrian: “He’s a very friendly, very nice guy, very humble, very entertaining also, a very funny guy.”

As for Marsch, the way he handled his press duties while managing RB Salzburg in Austria marked him out as a ‘very nice guy’ according to Tom Middler of The Other Bundesliga.

“His approach to the media summed up his overall image really, in that he always came across as a very nice guy,” Middler told the YEP.

“He was open with people, took time for journalists, was clearly a family man who has made a big move to Europe with the family in tow, and did it all whilst trying his best in German.

“That endeared him to many in the press, and made him a very likeable figure for fans as well, even though Salzburg aren’t always the most popular team in the land.”

It was entirely on brand, then, that Hasenhuttl and Marsch chose to trade compliments in their Thursday press conferences. The Saints boss spoke to Marsch’s human qualities and gave his full backing to his decision to take the Leeds job.

“He’s an outstanding character, he’s very close to the players,” said Hasenhuttl.

“It was interesting to watch his development as a coach, I think the step he made was absolutely good. It’s the right way to go.”

Marsch, as is his want, went to town, telling the story of how they first spent time together in Germany due to their Red Bull connections.

“In 2016 and ‘17 in the winter, Ralph was kind enough to allow me to join his [RB Leipzig] staff for about six, seven weeks in that time,” said Marsch.

“Ralph is an incredible human being. That’s the first thing that needs to be said, that he is a really good person that cares about people and cares about his teams and the environments that he creates and then he’s a sharp, intelligent manager and I think he believes in a lot of the same principles and philosophies that I believe in in football.

“He allowed me in every meeting that they ever had as a staff and as a team and then obviously there were a lot of tactical discussions.

“Often I was a fly on the wall and would have some discussions later with him about things.

“One day, he had the whole staff over at his house for a dinner and he invited me at that time and he played piano for us so he’s a really good piano player.

“He’s a gentleman, through and through. I look back at it and reflect on it as a really helpful time for me and a really special time to spend with him.”

Now the two will meet again, not as a manager and his observer but as competing peers, with three important points at stake.

The nice guy tag will be shaken off after a handshake or a fist bump in front of the West Stand and, depending on how the afternoon develops, be picked up some time later.

Marsch has already dipped a toenail in the water of mind games, suggesting that the time Hasenhuttl gave him in Germany could be used for Leeds’ benefit.

“I learned a lot from from the weeks that I spent with him in that time and the way that he leads and the way that he talks and the way that he thinks so maybe that helps our team and me prepare for what he is and what his team is right now,” said the Whites boss.

Leeds’ league position does not afford them a chance to be anything other than ruthless, and coming up against a side who showed a lack of ability to cope with Watford's 'streetwise' tactics and a side whose centre-backs can be got at affords them a chance to be just that. What's more, Marsch has not only his own experience and knowledge of Hasenhuttl's methods to draw upon, but a dressing room full of players who rattled the Saints and their manager at Elland Road last season.

The Whites were ‘nasty’ in the way they foiled counter attacks with fouls, Hasenhuttl claimed after a 3-0 defeat, and Southampton cannot expect anything different this time round, not least due to the aggression Marsch is demanding from his team. Numbers, albeit from a small sample size, show Leeds making more pressures and more fouls under their new head coach than under his predecessor Marcelo Bielsa.

And given his pre-game discussion of Southampton focused on the rotation of Hasenhuttl’s 6s, Marsch evidently sees the midfield area as key to victory. That’s where Leeds are relatively blessed, in terms of options and players who would take pleasure in rattling Oriol Romeu and James Ward-Prowse.

Kalvin Phillips is in contention to start, potentially pitting him in direct competition with the man who played in his stead alongside Declan Rice for England in midweek. The Leeds boy needs no managerial direction to dish out intensity and will be champing at the bit to reintroduce himself in dominant style. If Phillips does get the nod, which feels likely, Marsch has a choice to make between Adam Forshaw and Mateusz Klich. One is a more natural 6 than the other but that does not necessarily guarantee a start for Forshaw.

“When you play with two 6s, it’s always important that they can have a little bit different qualities and Mateusz is probably more of an 8 or a 10 but he still can meet the standards for what we want to do specifically against the ball, and then obviously with the ball he has some abilities to have solutions in tight spaces by moving with the ball, by creating, by finding a little bit of time and space for himself which can help create pause for the game for us,” said Marsch of his Polish international on Thursday.

“I think that he’s also shown that he’s committed to playing against the ball and learning our aggressiveness specifically in one-v-one duels defensively and he’s done really well, he’s won a lot of balls for us in pressing moments and then in counter-pressing moments and he’s intelligent.

“He can still play an advanced position for us but I think he’s fitting into our team really well in in a little bit deeper position.”

Klich’s link-up play makes him an ideal candidate to look after the ball as Leeds look to progress it in tight spaces in their new narrow system and his fondness for irritating opposition players also plays in his favour.

Forshaw can be annoying too, though, as Bruno Fernandes discovered. He will smash into tackles and he too can retain the ball under pressure. He brings the positional and defensive discipline Marsch was talking up as vital for this game. Robin Koch is another option and one Marsch has used, which shows the scale of the selection headache for the head coach.

In a season like the one Leeds have had, though, with injuries so often stripping the squad threadbare, this type of problem is a much nicer one for Marsch to have as he tries to give another nice guy a horrible afternoon.