Jesse Marsch blazing a trail for American coaches: How he's approaching Year 2 at FC Salzburg

There was so much that was new and dynamic about Jesse Marsch's first year in charge of FC Salzburg. For Marsch, it was a new team in a new country in one of Europe's most iconic cities. And even amid sky-high expectations, he delivered a league title, as well as qualification to the group stages of the Champions League. The Racine, Wisconsin, native managed a budding superstar in Erling Haaland, now of Borussia Dortmund, and even gained notoriety with a viral video of his German/English halftime speech against Liverpool.

But the game waits for no one, as Marsch knows all too well. The compensation, in terms of both praise and money, has already been paid. And a manager's reservoir of trust from the players, in terms of decisions both on the field and off, eventually has to be refilled.

So now an even greater challenge awaits, that of keeping the momentum going. This is trickier than it sounds, even for a team as relatively well heeled (at least by Austrian Bundesliga standards) as Salzburg. Keep things too much the same, and the message gets stale. Change too much, and information overload begins to hamstring the players. And so Marsch has set out on a quest to find balance and move Salzburg forward, with Tuesday's Champions League clash with Bayern Munich his latest opportunity to do so. Even during his vacation, he found himself taking notes on how to improve the team.

"My message at the beginning of preseason was: How good can we be at the things that we're good at?" Marsch told ESPN via telephone. "And then also add a few other things that we think can still make us even better. But I find that you can't get too cute with trying so many new things because you have to understand also how to be true to yourself and in the past what's made you good."

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Marsch is keen to have his side play even more aggressively, and at a higher tempo -- not exactly easy given the high-pressing style his team already uses. But he'd also like to see his team do more in possession, while also continuing to incorporate more young players.

"And then the daily work is to keep the individual motivated and getting better and getting better," he said. "That's everything from a top player or captain to academy players."

With a year under his belt as a manager in Europe, Marsch's tactical plan and way of training are already well established. For that reason, he finds about 70% of his time is devoted to man management and the mentality of the group.

That process has required some tweaking over the course of Marsch's career, especially as he has encountered different cultures in different locker rooms. There are times when a player who comes from nothing feels more allegiance to his family than the team. There are other times when the impulse of a player is to lash out at everything around them -- including the coach -- rather than to look within. There is also the reality of where Salzburg fits in the global game. It's very much a club that players are hoping to use as a stepping stone to bigger stages, much like Haaland did last year with Dortmund and Takumi Minamino did with Liverpool.

That pressure can create more of an inward focus.

"I found that creating a group mentality was a lot easier to do in the U.S. than it has been here in Europe," Marsch said. "They don't do a lot of personal reflection and think about how their actions actually affect the group. And so my way is always to try to create a responsibility within the player pool to each other, not to necessarily the coach.

"That's even a new concept here. When I would talk to players when I first came here, whether it was Leipzig or here in Salzburg, about how when they behave selfishly, [I'd say] they're not just letting themselves down, but they're letting the group down. Forget about the relationship with the coach. That should be one of their last motivations. If the players are proving themselves to see each other and giving of themselves to each other every day, then they're all going to be successful.

"That's one of the things you have to do: Convince the group that it benefits all of them to give to each other, because when the group succeeds, the individual succeeds."

One way Marsch addresses this is through a heavy amount of squad rotation, especially with the Champions League once again taking a prominent place in Salzburg's schedule. Marsch adds it's important to spread the wealth early in the season to better keep players engaged. Through just six league games, 23 players have made at least one appearance.

"Then [squad rotation will] benefit you later in the year, when a player's suspended or an important player is hurt," he said. "You know now you need one of these players that maybe isn't in the normal 11. When you need him in the most important games, he's ready. And we certainly found that out with our group last year when it came to the championship round."

That emphasis on the collective has long been at the forefront of Marsch's philosophy, and it was a light that went on for him when he served as an assistant under Bob Bradley with the U.S. men's national team. As a player, all Marsch -- a ball-winning midfielder in his playing days -- thought about was winning. When he started coaching, he realized that he was missing a lot of small details that could help players, and the team, over time.

"I started to see that actually creating the process, and creating clues for each player as to how to move themselves along on a daily basis or weekly basis, then they would be more able to commit to what we wanted them to do and thus help the team more," he said. "When you do that as a team with each individual, then typically what happens is you control results more."

Marsch has also long had a desire to develop young players, and it was this philosophy that created friction with his bosses during his first head-coaching job in 2012 with the Montreal Impact. In Montreal, Marsch's knowledge of MLS meant he was brought in to establish a foundation. But there was a strong impulse from upper management to bring in established stars such as Alessandro Nesta and Marco Di Vaio. Marsch is well aware that it was his job to adapt, but the club's approach still made him uncomfortable.

"My way of leading is about engaging everybody and treating everybody like they're on the same level," he said. "And [Montreal's] was a little bit more about prioritizing certain people or certain situations. For me, that always puts the team in stress."

Marsch is clear that if he had the opportunity to do things over again, he would "100 percent" go to Montreal because he learned so much. But in retrospect, it's obvious that philosophically there was a disconnect between the club and the manager.

And so, the two sides agreed to part ways. Marsch, still under contract, took the opportunity to travel the world with his family. But eventually, that trip (and his old Montreal deal) came to an end, and the extent of the leap he had taken into the unknown by leaving became apparent. There were interviews aplenty. Marsch recalls as many as seven, and yet he wasn't finding the connection -- the philosophical alignment -- he wanted.

"My wife and I had many conversations where I contemplated leaving football, coaching college, what to do next," he said.

When it finally came time to interview with the New York Red Bulls, Marsch said he felt it was more of the same given the Red Bulls' history of signing big stars such as Thierry Henry. Little did he know that a philosophical sea change was afoot.