'I'd have signed on the dotted line' - Jesse Marsch on Leeds United's draw at Crystal Palace

The 0-0 draw made it five games unbeaten under the American and stretched their lead over 18th-placed Everton, who have played one game fewer, to five points.

Leeds came under huge pressure from Crystal Palace, particularly late on, and struggled to find their rhythm in possession throughout the fixture. Results are king right now for Marsch, though.

"The result is big, every point is important," he said.

"The performance was not our best but defensively very stable. Second clean sheet in a row, Kalvin Phillips played 90 minutes, we just have to take the positives away. At this place against a team that can be very explosive to hold a clean sheet is very important for us right now.

"[The point] gets us closer and closer to our ultimate goal. If you had said to me five games ago you'd pick up 11 points I'd have signed on the dotted line."

Leeds went into the game on the back of a two-and-a-half-week break from action, something Marsch felt was not entirely helpful.

"It was not so easy with 16 days to keep game fitness and sharpness and that showed a little," he said.

"The mentality of the group and the willingness to fight helped to earn the point today. They want to play better, they still feel this is a game we can get three points out of. Coming to this place was never going to be easy. Finding a way to earn a point is big for us right now."

Although Leeds struggled to create sufficient danger to swing the game in their favour at Selhurst Park, Marsch is working to improve the way his team operates on the ball in his system.

"We talked about playing a few long to set the tone but we wanted to play out," he said.

"Illan [Meslier] was brave in a lot of moments, got our centre-backs into the game. In the end it wasn't sharp enough or clean enough in some of our build-up phases to get into overload situations. That led to us not being dangerous enough. We're trying to build that in more and more and the clarity of how the little connections work, at times it can look good but not enough in terms of spacing, the choices of pass, the timing.

"We have a lot of work to do."