Ex-Leeds United man's Jesse Marsch surprise and the next challenge for his rested Whites

There is, of course, still some work to be done but you’d have to say that teams below them are going to have to produce something pretty special, something they’ve not produced at all this season, to get near.

That’s not to say it can’t happen but it’s becoming more and more difficult for those teams because games are running out and we’re looking in a stronger position.

Burnley sacking Sean Dyche was a surprise, I have to say. Even just taking into account his experience - he’s been there, seen it and done it and managed to keep them in the Premier League which is always a minor miracle in the circumstances. A time was always going to come when it suddenly became more difficult but I’m not sure who would be better placed than Dyche. The owners must be thinking that a different voice and a different message will get a different response and it has to, for them, because this is a last roll of the dice.

I was also a little surprised at Jesse Marsch’s comments on Leeds United’s squad being overtrained, although I would have been more surprised had he said it a few weeks earlier, before the run he’s had and the points he’s managed to pick up.

It’s clear the injuries that Leeds have had are not normal and the type of injuries that we’ve had are not normal. Every manager, every way of training has a trade-off between getting stronger and getting closer to picking up more injuries and, unfortunately with such a small squad, we erred, this season, on the latter side more than other teams. I think, if you look at the statistics and all the minutes lost, we are among the worst for losing players. Perhaps Marsch was just saying what a lot of people have been thinking, particularly when we’ve had hamstring muscles ripped off bones, all the muscular injuries and the problems suffered by new signings. It was clearly a really demanding regime under Marcelo and you will get issues.

What Jesse is saying is that he’s been left with a lot of these injuries to sort out.

When it comes to physical conditioning, it’s all about balance but you have to remember that players always want to play as well. They’re going to push themselves and do whatever they can to play and, sometimes, they need protecting from themselves. You want the best players out there and, if the player says ‘I want to give it a go’ to a manager who needs to win games as they all do, you can see where they take a gamble. We can’t forget that Marsh has done exactly that, with Patrick Bamford, and it’s failed him as well. While it is a little surprising to hear him say what he did, I think the timing was better than saying it a few weeks earlier.

He and the squad will be focused fully on getting back on the pitch again now, though. Leeds will be looking at this Crystal Palace game as the one that could keep us up, so it’s a huge game yet again. It’s nice to go into it knowing you’ve still got quite a few more games to play, rather than only one or two. When you’re looking at the likes of Norwich, Watford and Burnley, in the last chance saloon, losing any game is going to be absolutely gigantic, whereas we’re not quite in that spot - we can relax a little bit more. With a nice rest under our belt I think the players will be eager to get out there. We should be the fresher side - they will have played three times since we beat Watford - but we have to make that pay. Playing at a high tempo, as we do, let’s see if it becomes a factor in the last 10 or 15 minutes. Our boys will be hungry as ever and ready to go full tilt for 90-plus minutes.

I’ve been impressed with Palace and Patrick Vieira. We know what a great player he was but he’s done the rounds and then learned his trade at various clubs on the managerial side.

He got a chance at Palace and produced a really good side, which no one really expected. They’ve always had some talented individuals who maybe then go on and do great elsewhere, but Vieira has done a wonderful job to make a team.

What’s interesting is how that cup semi-final defeat affects them - I certainly wouldn’t dismiss it. So much of their season will have hinged on the cup because they’re not in trouble in the league and a final would have been massive. Losing it will have been a bitter blow. Obviously, it’s going to be difficult against Chelsea but it will be interesting to see how they bounce back from that and how they recover mentally.

As for Leeds and what they need to do in this one other than pick up a result, which is the most important thing, it’s about quality. It was a bit of surprise against against Watford that we really couldn’t get our passing game going and some of the quality in possession was disappointing. The spirit, organisation, everything else was there and we had two moments of brilliance but I’m sure everyone would like to see a little bit more composure with the ball and that’s what I’d be looking at against Palace.

Can we just dictate play and show our qualities? I just think we lacked that against Watford, as did they, so it was a really strange game. But I think that’s where we’ll want to see a bit of improvement.