'Blarney' pundit finds Leeds United a tough crowd but uncovers undisputed Jesse Marsch point

His suggestion that he would have been embarrassed to play for the Argentine during the Spygate chaos was lumped in with a lot of punditry under what Whites fans decided was hysteria.

Stuart Dallas was, according to Keown in October 2020, a 'journeyman' despite playing for Leeds - only the second club of his full-time professional career - since 2015, although he was complimentary of the panic the Ulsterman and his Whites team-mates were causing for opposition sides.

A month later he was once again imagining himself as one of Bielsa's defenders and insisting that the back-to-back 4-1 defeats by Leicester City and Crystal Palace would have had him sitting the boss down to express his doubts in the system. Leeds recovered to record a creditable 0-0 with who else but Arsenal in their next game and eventually finished that season ninth in the Premier League, two points behind the Gunners.

Keown's February 2022 questioning of the man-to-man marking system did age better, though, because it came at a time when that facet of Bielsa's philosophy, one that had served them so well for three seasons, was being punished ruthlessly by very good teams and of course, just a couple of days later, he was sacked by Leeds after another beating.

The former Highbury hero turned his attention to Bielsa's successor Jesse Marsch on Sunday night, as part of Match of the Day 2's coverage of the 0-0 draw with Brentford. This time, some of what he said found favour in West Yorkshire, because it's how some in the Leeds fanbase are interpreting what's going on and what's being said by Marsch.

“I don’t see any game management, I don’t see any control," Keown began.

"I think the manager has got good characteristics. But when you don’t win a game, it’s like codswallop, blarney, it’s propaganda. It’s like he’s clinging on, they need to get results. Two wins in 16 games is not moving in the right direction, so the next two games are massive for them. The first one coming up is Forest. They've got to start getting results and playing effective football. It's so frenetic and frantic. Calm down and play some football."

There wasn't too much that could be hotly disputed in there, save perhaps for his pronunciation of blarney, and actually, he hit upon a point that bears repeating, because Marsch himself has made it more than once. Calm down and play some football is, really, just another way of voicing Marsch's '100 to 70' idea, whereby players play at full-tilt in order to press intensely and win the ball, before assuming mental composure and making a good decision.

It's not so much that the American wants Leeds to slowly and methodically pick their way around an opponent once possession is recovered, because quick, direct football is what he's been preaching since he arrived, but he wants them to be clear headed enough to make the right pass.

“We have a term we call 100 to 70,” he said in April of last year.

“It means that, in certain moments, we want them to slow down a little bit and, not always physically but just in their heads, with the ball have a little bit more poise and control with how to put together the next play."

Against Brentford, Leeds were guilty of rushing decisions on the ball and therefore wasting good territory and possession. It could be argued that there was control and game management in so far as they pinned the Bees in during the second half and took charge of proceedings, but too often they were not in sufficient control of the final play in the final third.

The first 15 seconds after the interval saw Leeds get hold of the ball and find those 'connections' Marsch has been talking about, Tyler Adams moving through the pitch exchanging passes with Luke Ayling, Brenden Aaronson and then finding Rodrigo. It was all one-touch stuff, played at pace. It was Leeds at 100. Rodrigo took it on, found Jack Harrison outside the area, he first-timed it to Willy Gnonto who laid it off to Rodrigo with a little flick that the Spaniard couldn't quite control. Had he been able to, and found Pascal Struijk in a better position than the byline-tight space the defender ended up in before hitting a cross out of play, the second half might have started perfectly.

Rodrigo was involved again in a lovely exchange with Ayling shortly after, getting the ball in a decent position in the area only to fail to pick out a man with a low cross.

What was required, as the second half developed into a frustrating pattern for Leeds, was the kind of composure and quality Rodrigo produced for Gnonto's wonder goal against Cardiff City. Adams' pressing, tackling and charging forward with the ball was the 100, Rodrigo checking back inside, taking an extra touch and taking an extra second to look up before playing the perfect cross into the teenager's path was the 70.

Doing it against a Championship struggler is one thing, doing it against Thomas Frank's awkward and well-coached Brentford is quite another. It's easier said than done in a league that boasts such good defenders and defensive midfielders.

But do it Leeds must. Whether it's Keown's calm down and play advice or Marsch's 100 to 70 mantra they keep in mind, Leeds need to start finding a moment or a space in and around the area to pick the right path if they are to have any chance of proving Marsch's momentum and direction theory is more than codswallop and blarney.