Every word from Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch's pre-Aston Villa press conference

For Jesse Marsch’s pre-Aston Villa press conference at Thorp Arch. All the news to follow here.

Jesse will be with us shortly. All the news to follow here

“I just to start by acknowledging the injury with Tyler Roberts, it was kind of a freak accident on the pitch. We knew it was going to be a pretty heavy injury right away but Tyler was adamant about wanting to stay on the pitch for the rest of the match which I appreciated and it helped us a little bit maybe in set piece situations and what not. But he had a successful surgery, we texted a little bit after the surgery and he was in positive spirits and the surgeon feels like it went well so we are hopeful that he will have a full recovery and in three or months time be strong and ready and back at 100 per cent.”

“The nice thing is, it is slowing down a little bit. The first days when you come there is a million things on your mind and a million things to take care of and you kind of get to know people more and more. Now we have spent more intensive time with each other, everything from the people here at the training centre to the staff at the stadium to obviously the players and everything, I think we have enjoyed our time together. Everything has been very positive, we obviously felt good about the first performance despite not getting the result that we thought we wanted and frankly deserved. But we know that those good feelings will stay strong when we can get the results so the focus and concentration to try to push every day to understand exactly what direction we want to go in has been good and we will need that in this coming week.”

“They do have to adapt. We talked about that from the beginning. I think it’s not just the tactics and the football style, it is also the type of leader I am. I am different. I am more interactive I think, not just comparing to Marcelo but to many coaches. They are getting to know me more. I think they are getting to understand what’s important to me and what will be important to us and their ability to commit to that every day and come with energy every day will determine how quick the learning curve is. After the first game, I think the feedback in terms of performance is what we wanted but it’s only the first step and there is a long, long, long way to go yet.”

“I have done that at different moments, partly because if I go back to my time in Austria and Germany, after the game, the media comes for players right away and it's almost impossible after the match to have the whole group together. The attention around this small little conversation with the group I find frankly hilarious and ridiculous. But whatever, maybe people don't see that much here. I have done that quite a few times in my career, in positive moments and in negative moments and it's about now making sure that we are able to, as a group, process what just happened and that we are clear on what was good and what was bad and how we are going to move forward. I felt that the immediate feedback in that situation was important. I realised I could maybe do it in the locker room, maybe I will do it on the pitch. I don't know, who cares."

Jesse is then told that Jack Harrison enjoyed it.

“Okay, good. And then to make sure that our fans were great at Leicester...to make sure that we always go and acknowledge them which the guys are really good about that and then just to continue our process here of what we are trying to develop and to do it in as short a timeframe as we possibly can.”

“I would say with the fans, I have spent time some time in and around the city, having dinner and seeing people and I think that the fans have come to a really good balance of understanding that they can love Marcelo Bielsa and still support the new coach and the new direction of the team and I think I am certainly very comfortable with that as well. And I think that in the end, what is the most important is that the team can perform and represent the fans and get the results that we need to keep us in the Premier League. They understand that and I have had a lot of really positive interactions with people and really kind, really kind and generous and thoughtful and supportive, much more than I think I deserve or could ask for. I am thankful for that and I am doing everything I can to make sure that we as a group and as a team can represent that kindness and that mentality within our community here.”

“Patrick will play for sure tomorrow, he won’t start but he will be ready from the bench and we’re excited to have him back in the team and I think he can give us a massive boost. What’s interesting is that when we were contemplating his return to play and what we wanted his weeks to look like here, since I have been here then the physical team told me what his loading has been like over the last six, seven, eight months and the different kinds of injuries he has had. He hasn’t trained hard often and he certainly hasn’t played much. Even getting him back, it was the reason why I was hesitant against Leicester. I just felt like we had more to lose than gain in that moment and knowing how important Patrick is. Even for me from a personality perspective, he’s a positive guy, he comes with an energy, he works really hard. The effect he’ll have on the group I think will be relatively massive and I think we need to make sure that we handle his return in a way that only gets him stronger and stronger and better and better.”

“I think he had surgery last Wednesday so it’s been eight days, maybe it was Thursday so seven days. The immediate feedback has been that it was not so severe and that they trimmed up his knee really well and his knee hasn’t reacted, he doesn’t have much swelling and he has full range of motion and he is walking without a limp and it looks like the recovery could be a matter of weeks instead of months.”

“I think they are both possibilities from the start and are certainly close to 100 per cent. Adam Forshaw told me he hasn’t felt this good in weeks so I think he will be absolutely ready for the match tomorrow and Diego as well. Diego has trained and will be ready as well. He had a small muscle issue but it kept him out of availability for the weekend but he will certainly be in the squad tomorrow.”

“For me, I am so happy not to speak German any more. It’s the inter-nation of language and it’s the small details of what words and when that makes communication effective or not. I became relatively fluent in German but I wasn’t able to capture every moment as well as I can in English. Even the thought of coming here, there’s so many things I think that I touched on in the first press conference, the people here, the connection I have with the leaders in the club, the idea of what the club is and wants to become and how the playing style can transfer from Marcelo to me. But a lot of it is also that I feel much more comfortable in my ability to implement, to communicate, to describe and also I think the emotion comes across when I am just able to speak my mother tongue. What’s funny is that maybe I am ridiculed more for my language here in England than I would be in Germany and it is my native language but we will get through that! I am not worried about that!”

“I would start with first talking about watching him as a player when he was at Liverpool. He was a player I admired because of his passion and will on the pitch. I think for a manager like him, he’s trying to then use those qualities to translate to his team, to impose upon his team, that’s clear. I think they’ve responded to him really well despite every result not being what they want. I can relate with that. I was nowhere near the quality of player that Steven was, but I try to embody a full mentality on the pitch and to be a player who played with no fear and went after the game and after the opponent at all moments. I appreciate what he has said. We played against LA, I think when he was there we won 3-2 with a late goal with a late penalty, but he scored in that game if I remember correctly. LA is the jewel of MLS, and the superstars that they’ve had there over the years - David Beckham and countless other guys - meant that the games in LA were always exciting and fun and had a lot of emotion.”

“It’s one thing to say you need to defend better, then it’s another to be clear with what your tactical model is and how you want your team to behave. For me, with the way that we play, it’s not fair to say that Illan needs to improve his performances, or that the centre backs….. it’s about the team and the clarity with which we want to play. And if you were to talk about their ability to execute that in the game against Leicester, I would say it was a very good, very positive performance, quite unlucky even, the way that we gave up the goal. The one thing I spoke to the team about is that the goal was a result of the fact that when Schmeichel had the ball, we weren’t all ready for exactly what was going to come next and it was too easy for Leicester to walk down the field in our last third and have the opportunity to put together a little quality play like that. The importance in the way we play, that every player is always alert and ready, and clear, and organised, and that the communication on the pitch is as such, and that the roles are understood, is what will make us a better defensive team more so than just the individual performances.”

“I’ll be shocked if they don’t play with a diamond - they’ve got two good results when they’ve played with a diamond. Countinho has been a big factor, playing a ten in the diamond. The two strikers, Ings and Watkins have been very active, and very explosive, specifically in transition moments. They’ve also defended very well. They’re a team I frankly admire what they do with set pieces. I’ve heard they have a set piece coach and the creativity they show and they variation they have with what they do means we have to be alert and ready for any kind of special plays that they might organise. And a team that are very confident, and that can always be dangerous. We will need our fans, we will need a good start, certainly one of the goals in a good start would be to find a way to get the lead - it’s been a long time for us as a team since we’ve had the lead in a match. I think we’ve painted the picture. We’ve all played them a month ago, I think we’ve painted a picture of what to expect from the game and then what our tactics are and what we want to achieve.”

“Liam was in training yesterday and I think he’s making really good progress. Kalvin is a few days behind, we will evaluate on Friday if he’s ready to start to enter training. In my mind, I’m earmarking the international break as a time when we can really start to get him into a training rhythm and get him back to being 100% - maybe it happens earlier, let’s see - but I think what’s most important at this juncture right now is that we don’t have any setbacks and we’re building him in the right ways so that the curve of returning back to play is steep as it can be with no interruptions.”

“We will come up with specific set piece plans for every opponent based on what they present and what their qualities are, and that’s both defensively, offensively, throw ins, and in every aspect of the game. It’s something we’re introducing to the team and they’re grasping well. I find it’s not always exactly what you do with set pieces but just the mentality that those moments in the game are important. We created a plan today and the players’ attention to detail and then their execution on the pitch, even from a training session, was quite good, and we also showed them in the game how they were relatively successful with the things that we wanted them to achieve defensively and offensively, so it’s a good first sign for what we want to become as a set piece team. A lot of it, again is about the mentality - that these moments are important. We’ll keep working on that.”