Leeds United press conference live: Jesse Marsch provides Patrick Bamford and team news update

He created a lot of firsts for American players, so we’re grateful to him

Their back line now with Koulibaly and Cucurella - intelligence, experience, quality, athleticism, what a formidable defence and then a great goalkeeper behind them. We will try to press them in the right moments, we’re not gonna sit back. With the ball we’re gonna be brave and want to challenge them. They’re also good with set-pieces - we saw with Koulibaly, he’s a beast

Cody has been fantastic, he’s trained really well, he’s fit and ready to go, I thought he played well in the 21s match [vs Norwich]

I know Rasmus really well and the quality he has. I think he’s done well and I think he knows there’s a lot to be learned and that it’s a level up. I said to him ‘the reason you’ve came here is to get out of your comfort zone’ and he knows that. We went through this a little bit at Salzburg and then after two years he was their most impactful player. He said he thought he was making 10, 15, 20 impactful moments per match at Salzburg and now it’s one or two or three.

I still feel to balance out our squad effectively it would be helpful [to add a striker], but we need the right guy. I don’t want to bring in somebody that’s going to take three months to adapt and educate and not be ready to help us. Do they understand the type of football we want to play, do they understand the league, run and press at the level, be intelligent to execute our matchplans, they are our variables. We can’t just pick him out of the sky.

I think Pascal’s doing great. Junior is looking strong in rehab training. Leo Hjelde played well in the U21s game.

He’s taken a lot of the things we’ve talked about and applied them more and more at a higher level. He had an outstanding pre-season. It’s not random, it’s a culmination of him adapting to the league and what we’re trying to achieve and the confidence has grown massively. He’s one of the guys we know will be starting, he’ll wear the captain’s armband, he’ll take penalties. It says a lot about how he’s adapted and a lot about him.

I think we have a team that can cause some havoc. At home we always enjoy playing in Elland Road. The team’s coming together in a good way. We just want them to go on the pitch and play to their abilities. We definitely have a chance.

For Ian it’s been difficult for him. It’s likely we find another solution for him in this time but he’s been really good with the whole process. Mateo Joseph will stay, continue to mature and grow with the 21s.

With him it would be more of a long-term project. That’s one thing with working with Victor, he’s incredibly organised looking at what we need now, what do we need in the winter, next summer.