Leeds United coach Jesse Marsch held his press conference today ahead of the game with Aston Villa on Sunday. Here are all the key points, and his thoughts on the match.
As usual, he began with injury news and said “Archie Gray had an incident at home where he stubbed his toe and he kind of fractured a little bit of his big toe, so he’s been out of training for about two weeks and he’ll be out for probably another two weeks. Stuart (Dallas) is making really good recovery. He went on to see a specialist and they’re feeling like he’s doing really well and on track, obviously, it’ll still be some time for him. Adam Forshaw twisted his ankle this week and so it’s not so bad, but but he won’t be available this weekend. Other than that, every single player is available for us, so we’re feeling like we’re getting to full strength”
On his suspension, “I don’t agree with the decision that it was not a penalty on Summerville and even after they’ve had an independent panel look at it and say that they don’t think it’s a penalty. I disagree with that. I disagree with the red card that they gave me and I disagree with the suspension however, I respect and accept the punishment. The ban, the touchline ban, I haven’t appealed it because I didn’t feel that I wanted to do that I wanted to respect their decision, and for me, you know, I mean, it’s not the first time obviously, as a player, I received a couple of red cards as a coach. I’ve had to miss a game or two in my career, and then when I was in Leipzig, actually the last three matches I coached from the kitchen with Covid, So this is hardly as bad as that. I’m just banned from the touchline, I can be with them before the match, at halftime, in the dressing room, I’ll watch the match from the gantry up above and I’ll have communication with the staff, but I believe that the team will be fully prepared and ready and I know that the staff will also do a really good job in my absence on the touchline.”
Jesse, how valuable has the break been in terms of a reset, regroup getting players fitness levels back up and the chance to go again on Sunday with the visit of Aston Villa?
“Yeah, I mean, obviously it hasn’t been ideal, but I thought given the gravity of the situation with the Queen and her funeral, I think it was absolutely the right decision for the league. It was, I was awestruck by the funeral, by the unity in the country by the show of nationalism I think it was a special time to be here to honour the Queen and everything that over her 72-year reign that she achieved and the passing of the torch to King Charles. So I understand it and I appreciate it, and then yeah, we’ve gotten a little bit healthier. We’ve been able to talk a little bit more. We were able to work on a little bit more man-down tactics. We were able to work through a little bit more with set pieces with some of the things that we want to achieve in all the phases of the match and I think really push the level of fitness and training every day.”
“So I’m hopeful. I’ve always tried whether it was in the lockdown or in preseason moments when you have these little breaks to really try to maximize what you’re doing with the team, and I’m hopeful that we’re healthy, we’re strong we’re fit and that we’re really ready to push until the World Cup.”
Patrick Bamford started on the bench against Brentford, and a big boost for him during the international break scored a hat-trick for the U21s. What’s your gut feeling now Jesse about how close he is to full match sharpness, and he’s a big player for you between now and you know, crunch games coming up?
“With Patrick it’s it’s always been trying to manage him so that we’re pushing him fitness-wise and that he’s sharp and playing at a high level and then also with being able to not push him too hard and risk him getting other little injuries and little niggling injuries. I think we’ve managed it well, but it’s a little bit of a balance act with him. He’s massively important for us. I think, in every moment, he’s been on the pitch from pre-season until now, he’s scored goals, he’s been dangerous, he gets chances. So obviously in the Premier League goals are at a premium, and so I think we will need him, and we will need him to be at his best.”
Aston Villa, went through a tricky spell came out of it just before the break. What are you expecting from them on Sunday?
“Yeah, I mean, we played them last year we played them in pre-season. We didn’t have our best matches in either moments. I think that they have quality on the pitch. They’re very organized, especially with the way they defend, and I think that’s the thing that’s gotten them out of their their tough spell in the beginning of the season is that they’ve been defending really well and very organized specifically against the ball, and they can be a threat on set pieces and in transition moments. So it’ll be a tight match, I’m sure that it will be an intensive match, and we will have to be very intelligent specifically when we’re in possession, on how we balance out protecting the opponent from getting into transition moments, and then you know, I think Elland Road the one thing we will want to do is really go after the game to be aggressive to use our crowd to, to play with intensity to play with speed to play with power and to play with intelligence. That’s that will certainly be a big part of what we try to achieve on the day.”
How important is it, you are unbeaten obviously, at home, to make Elland road, the fortress that it has been in the past and to make teams fear coming to Elland Road like they used to?
“It is one of our big goals, it is and again I said to you, I said to all of you last year when we played against Aston Villa that I learned a lot about what it meant to play in front of our fans at Elland road, and we’ve tried to adjust that and we’ve had a pretty solid record when playing at home and part of it is playing with aggression, part of it is using our fans and the energy in the power of what the entire mood and energy in the stadium is. So yeah, that’s really important to us and if we can be a really strong team at home it also allows us to play a little bit freer on the when we’re on away matches, because we can collect more points at home then we can really be aggressive to know that we can still go after games on the road.”
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