"Frankly totally ridiculous" - every word from Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch's pre-Leicester City press conference
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Leeds have now gone six games without a win, despite creating a host of chances against league leaders Arsenal on Sunday only to suffer a 1-0 defeat. Leicester drew 0-0 at home to Crystal Palace the previous day and the Foxes now sit bottom of the division following Nottingham Forest’s goalless draw at Brighton on Tuesday evening. Marsch spoke to the media at 2.45pm at Thorp Arch and here is every word that was said by the Whites head coach.
Leicester are set to be without six players with star man James Maddison suspended in addition to Jonny Evans (calf), Caglar Soyuncu (knee), Wilfred Ndidi (hamstring), Ryan Bertrand (knee) and Ricardo Pereira (Achilles) all being injured.
Leicester City v Leeds United: Jesse Marsch press conference every word
Key Events
- 8.15pm kick-off on Thursday evening
- Leeds no win in six. Leicester bottom.
Good afternoon
This feels like a very big game for Leeds. And for Leicester. Jesse will be with us at 2.45pm. All the latest main news to follow here followed by full transcript of every word later on.
Team news - Struijk out
“Adam is coming back from injury but feeling good. Stuart is still injured and Archie Gray. And then Pascal Struijk picked up a little bit of an injury and won’t be available for tomorrow. But we are hopeful that by Sunday he will be available.”
What can you say to the players after a performance like the Arsenal one but defeat?
“I feel like after a match like that, they feel they deserve more. Obviously we walk away feeling gutted because we feel like we deserve more against such a good team and my nature is to be positive, to look at things carefully and be realistic, but to remain positive. Sometimes you get tested in those ways because you can’t help but feel the emotion of the letdown. But I think that that performance continues to instill belief even though it’s not result based. That’s why in order to really reinforce what’s happening within our team, I think it’s really important that we start finding ways to get more wins.”
On players keeping positive
“I think they typically follow the lead of the leader or leaders from the club and in the team. I think in that sense, I have a really good connection with with people like Andrea and Victor and Angus, and also with players like Coops and Luke. And I just try to get their feedback sometimes but also reinforce the appropriate things with the group and also with those two guys and know that they’re really important in terms of how we all react. I can say that those two men are in our group are as strong and committed as ever.”
On Leicester - suprised to see them where they are?
“Yes. They are better than the last placed team in the league for sure. They’re good on the ball. They’re very dangerous in transition moments, they’ve still scored a good number of goals. And then defensively they’ve given away a little bit too much. But I think going there and knowing that they got a positive result and having two matches at home and a chance to gather momentum in their season, we’d be very foolish to not expect them to be ready for a big performance. So we’ve talked about what we want the match to look like, we’ve talked about what to expect and now we got to be able to execute that.”
On behaviour in technical area discussion?
“I am glad that I am not in that discussion this time. I don’t think any of us are proud when sometimes we have to be more emotional than we’d like to be and and certainly, I think we all respect referees, and we want to see them treated fairly. I think, I try to do that and I try to have dialogue. I try to support the referees when I think they’ve done a good job, even if I’m critical of them, I try to not not make an accusatory and I respect the work that they do and how important they are to the game. Of course, the decisions often dictate the fine line for a club like us of what success and failure is but we have to live with that and accept that and and focus on ourselves and I think that’s the most important thing that a manager can do.”
On Firpo - will he start? And what about Gnonto and Joffy as they were not involved last night?
“Junior will start and he will be ready. I think he’s been patiently waiting and also trying to make sure that he’s sharp, fit and strong so that when he gets called upon, he’s ready to go. So I’m excited for him to have his opportunitynow and to show that he’s ready. And then yes, Willy will be with us and Joffy and Sam and ome of the guys that we have talked about that have done a little bit of double duty will be with us. We knew that we had a three game week so we have use some of those 21s matches to keep them fit and strong and sharp and now we’re going to need them in this week to be ready for us.”
On switching roles Harrison and Aaronson at their recommendation
“This was a dicussion during the week and a big tenant of my leadership style is ownership and wanting the players to feel ownership and wanting them to give their opinions. Obviously I have a job to do, to make decisions. But when I when I make decisions that maybe are against the way a player feels or are against him being in the lineup or if they know what the process is and they and they believe in the way that I treat them in the way that I go about making the decisions and then they can even be satisfied and commit to it even if they don’t entirely agree. So when those two come up to me at half time, Brendan came up to me first, I said go speak to Jack. Then Jack and Brendan came to me and half times are pretty quick, you don’t have all day to have discussions, but then I say okay, Jack, what do you think? How do you feel? And he said, yeah, it can be good. And Brennan’s reasoning was yeah, maybe you can be a little bit more one on one situations and I can help press in the middle and close things down and it can be beneficial for both of us in the team. And I said great, let’s do it. And I think then it was one of the things that helped in the second half for us to really start to tilt the table. I think the tempo we played in the first half challenged them. I think that change, and I think Pat coming on the pitch made a big difference in the second half.”
On Leicester having six players out including Maddison suspended - are they particularly vulnerable now?
“I think they are dangerous. I always find that when when teams are a little desperate for points. Leicester have played better than what their record is. But it means that sometimes it can be hard to predict exactly what their lineup might be, what the tactics might be, and what the performance is so we are expecting their absolute best and we’d be foolish to think anything other than that, and when they are at their best are very good team. So, again, we thinkwe have created a match plan that addresses what we want to be on the day and what we want to look at with what they are and then, again, I want them to go out and play brave and go for it.”
What is missing most at the moment?
“Goals! We need two more goals, we need more leads. When we’re on top of matches we need to capitalise. I said that after the match and I think everyone around here knows that that’s where we are right now. If we can start to add that to the mix, then we can have a really good season.”
Is this the ideal game to get back to winning ways?
“Yeah, I think the important thing is how to just continue to build and what we don’t want is to have a performance like Arsenal where we feel good about it and came away with nothing and think that that’s enough. It should build hunger in us to go after the next game even more and in the next in the next in the next. So that’s the focus right now, to make sure there’s no satisfied mentality and that right now we’re going to do whatever it takes to play well and to find results.”
Progress so far
“Our last win was a couple of months ago but it doesn’t feel like that. I feel like we have been solid and growing, it’s just how unforgiving this league. I feel we are doing a lot of things right.”
On Rodgers - do you have sympathy for him?
“Yeah. Brendan is an experienced manager, I don’t know him that well but we have had enough interaction in different moments. I think he’s a good person. He always seems friendly enough and open enough and generous enough with his time. He’s obviously coached at some big clubs and had big success along the way. I think none of us sleep very well when we’re not performing the way that we want and that’s the misery of this job and the shared misery we have and the respect we have for each other in that way. But I have no doubt that he will be successful in the future just like he has been before.”
On Bamford - scored arguably best goal of his career at Leicester - do you want him thinking about former times now not not think about scoring at all?
“Of course, goalscorers tha’s almost all they think about, is scoring goals. And I’m challenging Patrick to continue to grow into the type of striker that we need. And I’ve said for a couple of weeks now that we think he could be part of the solution. And I also said, my experience of being around strikers is if they’re not getting chances, it’s much more concerning than if they’re getting chances and not scoring. He’s getting chances in bunches and his talent is so high that it’s only a matter of time before those start to go his way and when they do then we could start to see a total change in momentum in him and for us. So that’s the goal, is to help him, to challenge him to continue to move forward in a positive way but to support him and let him know that it’s close. We believe that, he believes that and yeah and I think Thursday could be a catalyst for that and for him for the rest of the season.”
“I just spoke to him and I said the reason I took him out wasn’t because of the mistake, it was because I felt like he was getting a little bit tired and not pressing in certain ways that we wanted and that I felt like bring on fresh legs and that was the plan from the beginning with him and Patrick against Arsenal and it was just when do we do it? And so we decided to do it at half. But I was clear with Rodri that he’s very important, that we need him, that him and Patrick will play together a lot, that we will continue to try to create clarity and roles and help him continue to push and he’s been incredibly important and our most dangerous player. He was good, he said I know and he will be ready. He’s a real pro and he gets it.”
“My way of working with all the guys is to communicate clearly what the plans are and then and then what the next steps are for them to continue to grow and develop and I think it’s even more important when they’re really important figures in the team. Certainly Luke is that for us. So I just have tried to communicate decisions. I’ve tried to communicate what we need from him, how for him to continue to show to be the example and how to handle difficulty with decision making from from the manager and I think he’s done that really well and continued to be supportive of the group and to be ready to perform. That’s the job. Right? And I think he’s done that at an incredibly high level and he’s going to get more and more playing time I’m sure.”
How does Luke get back in?
“It’s not really what does he need to do. It’s more just that he needs to be ready. In a person’s career and the way this works is you never know what the next moment is going to look like and you certainly need to be ready to seize that moment at any time. I don’t need to tell Luke that, he’s incredibly experienced and mature with who he is and how he deals with things. From day one I came here him and Coops were always the two most mature, complete, secure, sure leaders that I’ve been around. I don’t know how else to acknowledge how fortunate I am to have him in our group and I still know he has a lot to offer from a playing perspective as well. It’s not just about leadership. It’s about the player he is so he’ll be ready. He’ll be ready when called upon and I’m surel he’ll do great and make a case for himself everyday.”