What Leeds United need for next Premier League season and no excuse - David Prutton

Leeds managed to do what they needed to do which was get themselves out of trouble.

It helps when the team that you are battling for survival against loses their game but Leeds have stayed up in a very ‘Leeds’ way with that kind of gallows humour that we saw over the last few months of the season.

It almost benefits all parties with regards to Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch because there was a huge emotional wrench with Marcelo moving on and they had to stay up to honour the legacy.

That might sound a bit odd as it was getting to the point under Marcelo where they were getting battered quite a fair bit.

But the good that he has done the football club deserved to be part of the Premier League picture for the next season.

Jesse had a nice patch of games where Leeds went unbeaten in five but there were then games where they lost their discipline.

But the wonderful thing is that we’re talking about a team that’s in the Premier League next season and the stark reality is that Leeds stayed up by virtue of the fact that there were three worse teams.

That all sounds very much like common sense and Leeds did their job on the last day of the season but luck played a part and the fundamentals need to be looked at as a team that ships goals and is ill-disciplined is one that’s going to struggle.

There’s definitely stuff that needs to be looked at there but let Leeds have their ‘moment in the sun’, and the pictures of Raphinha in amongst the crowd at Brentford were just wonderful.

I’ve been somebody that possibly holds him to a higher standard because of how good a footballer he actually is.

But he held his nerve in the final game and celebrated it like any footballer should because, sometimes, moments like that are few and far between and you do very much file it under the ‘great escapes’ given the unwanted records that they’ve managed to tally up over the course of the season.

I don’t think there’s any discussion about the fact that Leeds ‘got away with one’ by staying up. They absolutely got away with one.

Defensively, and their approach to games in that period leading up to Christmas, was nothing short of shocking.

They looked like a team that was beaten, that was down on its knees and couldn’t find a way out.

But they gave themselves the opportunity to benefit from luck at the end of the season with that five-game unbeaten run because if they had lost those games then they could have been cut adrift long before the last day of the season and that’s not me not being overly negative.

Football is a tactical game, a motivational game and an emotional game but you can’t come away from the fact that coincidence, happenstance and luck play a massive part in it, absolutely.

There’s that element of very definitely getting away with one and the defensive issues need to be addressed across the team.

They also need to create a clear identity because I think taking over from Marcelo mid-season did not give Jesse the time to stamp his authority on the side.

But he’s now got no excuses going into next season and Leeds fans are probably waiting with bated breath to see what a Jesse Marsch team looks like, not a part Bielsa/part Marsch side but a fully Jesse Marsch side possibly with a lot of Bielsa players.

The hard work in planning starts now because that first game in August will be here before you know it.

When you look at where Leeds need to strengthen you have to look at the goals they are leaking, the discipline and the profligacy in front of goal.

Up front, they have been searching for a replacement for Patrick Bamford pretty much all that all season when he has been injured and they have also got to find a way of playing that doesn’t invite as much pressure on.

Leeds were known for swarming all over the opposition under Marcelo but, over the last six months, Leeds were inviting pressure on by silly mistakes and errors that were very, very avoidable leading to goals or chances or situations that bring pressure on.

If Kalvin Phillips happens to leave then they will have to look for someone at the base of the midfield and, if we are pre-empting Raphinha going, then they will need some creation or someone else to step up.

Defensively, they probably need an upgrade and that is no disrespect to the lads that are there at all.

Either that or Jesse finds a way of making them play that becomes more consistent and also the conditioning of the players needs looking at and not in the sense of how fit they are because they have been one of the leanest and meanest teams that we have seen, particularly the season before the one that has just finished.

But you cannot have that amount of players injured as it’s a staggering amount of players that have been injured for long periods of time.

That is something that needs to be addressed and that’s not me pointing the finger at the medical department; it’s a whole club thing.

And is training tailored accordingly and are the realistic expectations of physical human beings to be able to train a certain way but also play a certain way?

These are all the things that Jessie Marsh has come into Leeds to take total responsibility for and their next Premier League season lives and dies by the majority of decisions that he makes and the players that he plays.