No Leeds United bomb squad, a coach returns and missing forwards in training

Conventionally at football clubs, the collection of players not in a manager’s plans and expecting to depart are known as the bomb squad. During Marcelo Bielsa’s reign, Leeds United would send unneeded players, normally under-23s, to train away from Thorp Arch or at times the main group would not be around.

Under Jesse Marsch however, the fringe options we expect to depart Elland Road are still involved with the main first-team unit. Ian Poveda and Helder Costa were recorded going through the same drills as everyone else before the Wolverhampton Wanderers opener.

Marsch, to his credit, has been very open with his fitness updates and proactively addressed medical issues before the main part of his press conferences. There was no suggestion from him on Thursday of issues for either Patrick Bamford or Joe Gelhardt, but neither were in the club’s training video.

The American’s personable approach has been well documented since his arrival and his relationship with the players has become one of his calling cards. Bielsa would never have been sighted in these videos down the corridors among the players or in the boot room.

By contrast, Marsch was in there in this edition and speaking with compatriot Brenden Aaronson, who made a comment about his brightly-coloured boots. The head coach followed them out of the room with his pair of Adidas Copa Mundials and quipped: “They also make black shoes. I don’t know if you guys know that.”

United’s Scandinavian right-back already showed on Sunday he has the makings of a cult hero at Elland Road. He runs all day, he’s strong, he’s aggressive, he’s got quality and now he has a black eye that feeds the legend.

You may recall he received lengthy treatment during the Cagliari win after a