Boss calls for Leeds United must and hails Aston Villa ploy despite fresh Steven Gerrard critic

Leeds and Villa were involved in another niggly affair between the two sides in last weekend's return to Premier League action at Elland Road, after which Marsch criticised Vila's attempts to slow the game down as part of a goalless draw.

Marsch, though, has also highlighted an area of Villa's game for praise in setting his team up to commit too many fouls.

Marsch's high pressing side have committed the most fouls in the division and the Whites boss says his side must improve that area of their game, despite being proud of Leeds sitting top of the successful tackles charts.

"We are fouling way too much and that was also a discussion after the match,” said Marsch.

"We are fouling way too much and so we are still learning the technique of being aggressive in these one v one situations without fouling.

"A big part of being an effective pressing team is making sure that we are attacking the ball and the opponent.

"But you also see I think what Villa did and when I talk even about the savviness a little bit, what Villa did was sometimes bate our players into contact and then they would fall to the ground relatively easily to get fouls.

"That is intelligent from Villa and we have to adjust and we have to understand that if we are seeing that in a match early that we have to adjust even on the day how we are going to decide to go into tackles.

"To be an effective pressing team you can't be afraid of contact and you can't be afraid to go after the ball but we have to do it in a way where we don't foul as much.

"We have a phrase we call foul breaks pressing as often we have the opponent in a difficult situation where we have managed to close the space and if we foul then we allow them to break the pressure and we allow them to start over with possession in an open field and play wherever they want so we don't want to foul.

"Obviously we are not afraid of fouls but we don't want to.”

Marsch added: “With the fouls and different things, we haven't given up a tonne of penalties since I have been here and we have still shown discipline when we were in the box to not foul but we can also still be aggressive and just I think refine our technique of how to make the last step and win duels.

"One of the things is, when I challenge them to do things that we want to do tactically, individually and technically they care and they want to do what we are asking them to do at a high level.

"They want to try to achieve, they want to achieve the way we want them to achieve and they are trying to commit to what we are building and what we are doing here at the highest level and so sometimes is there some overzealousness?

"Probably. But that's okay for me.

"I have a phrase that I say that is being more aggressive is always better than being too passive so that's a mentality but also a thinking that applies to the style of play."

Reflecting on Leeds being top of the tackles charts, Marsch said: "Obviously a big emphasis here is pressing and counter pressing and effecting the player with the ball and effecting the time and space that the opponent has with the ball so I guess that's good.

"If we go for pressures in the opponent's half and if we go for counter pressures in the opponent's half and all these kind of things then we are high.

"And now you are also seeing teams that know that and are anticipating that and are bypassing our pressure and playing long balls so then there are other tactics that need to incorporated in those moments so that we are still managing the game that we want to."

Leeds are back in action at Crystal Palace today but the fall-out from last weekend's Villa clash still rumbled on at Marsch's pre-match press conference.

Gerrard responded to Marsch's time wasting accusations by declaring: "I'm not really interested in what Jesse thinks in his opinion."

Asked about that reaction, Marsch said: "I didn't expect him to be happy with what I said. But it was truthful.

"So in the end I chose to say something about it because I didn’t think it was good for the game, that particular game and for our league in general so that's the reason I chose to say something."

Asked if there was a need for etiquette between managers and if he had spoken with him after the game, Marsch reasoned: "I didn't see Steven.

"I respect him. He's a good coach and is an incredible name in our sport but that doesn't really apply to the situation that we dealt with on the day and I just called it like I saw it."