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Jesse Marsch gives his thoughts on the City defeat

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Image for Jesse Marsch gives his thoughts on the City defeat

Leeds United lost out 3-1 to Manchester City at Elland Road last night. The Leeds coach gave his thoughts on the contest directly after the game.

Leeds showed very little in the first half as Manchester City dominated possession and had the best of the chances. Illan Meslier kept his side in the contest with a string of fine saves to deny the visitors but eventually, the pressure led to the breakthrough when Riyad Mahrez’s shot was saved by Meslier and the rebound fell to Rodri to prod home. City doubled their lead shortly after half-time when a mix-up between Liam Cooper and Robin Koch allowed Jack Grealish to race in on goal and square the ball for Erling Haaland to tap home into an empty net. The Norwegian got his second of the night when he linked up with Jack Grealish again to sweep home from inside the box.

Leeds gave themselves some hope when Pascal Struijk nodded in Sam Greenwood’s perfectly placed corner, and the home side could have brought the deficit back to one goal in the last ten minutes when Joe Gelhardt was unlucky to see his effort squirm wide, but ultimately, Manchester City deserved the three points.

Jesse Marsch said, “One thing you know about City is that they’re always able to manipulate the game with possession and unbalance you in many, many spots on the pitch and, and I thought in that way, we were actually fairly stable and balanced and didn’t give a ton away, and then when we actually pushed ourselves into their half and open up a little bit more space behind us they were, they caught us on transition twice and then a giveaway that led to a goal. So that’s, I think the element that Erling Haaland provides to them, is that not just that he’s good in the box when they start building with possession, but that he’s good in transition. So it was a little disappointing the timing of the goals, but in the end, I’m going to take away some positives and find a way to keep pushing our group to get better and understand these kinds of matches.”

Illan Meslier saves well from Erling Halland in the Premier League clash at Elland Road

Marsch added, “What happens is when they get out of too many tight spaces, specifically when we had them a little bit in wide areas, then they’re able to catch on the other side and they make you run a lot, and so then we gave away too many easy balls when we won them in the first half and then you do more running and it becomes a battle of attrition, and that’s almost what happens then at the end of the half is they wind up finding a chance because we’re tired, so yeah we could have been better when we won balls, that’s for sure.”

“I’m trying to stay focused on our ability to stay in the moment and be at our best for each match. I feel like when we do that we can have a good team. We still have work to do, we need to get a couple of guys healthy because we think some of those guys can really help us, but I just want to keep our heads down and focused on getting better week to week and we know that we have enough quality in our team to not be in a relegation battle, but it will require this kind of mentality to just be a workman go after it every day and do everything we can.”

Leeds now face another tough test when they travel to St James Park to play Newcastle United who are on a terrific run of form. Recent results have put them in the top three of the Premier League table and Jesse Marsch’s men will have to be at their best if they are to get anything from the game.

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