Jesse Marsch press conference highlights: Leeds United boss issues team news

Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch is speaking to the media today ahead of his side’s opening fixture of the new Premier League season
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Leeds kick off their 2022/23 Premier League campaign at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers this weekend and will hope to get underway in a more positive fashion than last year.

United were beaten 5-1 by arch-rivals Manchester United this time last season before going six matches without victory to begin 2021/22.

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This year, the fixture list has been somewhat kinder to Leeds, offering up fixtures against a Raul Jimenez-less Wolves and Southampton in the first two gameweeks of the season, before matches against Chelsea, Brighton and Everton before the first month is out.

Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch speaks during a press conference (Photo by TREVOR COLLENS/AFP via Getty Images)Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch speaks during a press conference (Photo by TREVOR COLLENS/AFP via Getty Images)
Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch speaks during a press conference (Photo by TREVOR COLLENS/AFP via Getty Images)

Marsch’s side sustained injuries to Archie Gray, Luis Sinisterra and Adam Forshaw during the club’s pre-season tour of Australia but none were deemed serious and each could play a part in this season’s opening contest if passed fit.

On the list of Marsch’s absentees, four first-team players will sit out the Wolves opener: Stuart Dallas, Luke Ayling and Junior Firpo remain sidelined through injury, while Dan James serves the final game of a three-match suspension.

Keep up to date with all Marsch has to say in this afternoon’s live press conference blog.

Jesse Marsch press conference highlights: Leeds United boss issues team news

Marsch on Premier League quality

You can call it stress, pressure, the league is so good and it demands the best out of you. I’m just totally focused on getting our team ready to have a good first step in the season.

Marsch on goalkeepers

I think there’s an argument to have a more established goalkeeper as a back-up. Marcos Abad has created a really good environment with the goalkeepers. Anyone we bring in we have to be very clear, there can’t be any friction.

Marsch on Radrizzani

When we’ve made plans he’s carried them out and invested heavily. Right now we’re trying to be prudent. We were very sure in every transfer we attacked in this window - now we’re evaluating. I think every manager wants more money that’s not a big secret. Good players make good managers, not the other way round, we really like our team and we’ll be intelligent with how we add in the next weeks.

Marsch on players no longer taking the knee

I love there’s been an appreciation of diversity in our sport. When you become a manager in this business you have to have an open mind and you have to love working with different kinds of people. Whether we take a knee or not, we have a massive appreciation for all the differences people have. In general this league is at the forefront of so many things, the LMA is an amazing established organisation, I think the player pool and the unions and togetherness, how they think, taking the knee was the right thing.

Marsch on transfers

I don’t want to go too much into the transfer situation, but we’re trying. We’ve done a really good job with the guys we’ve brought in so far. We’re being really precise with what we need in the next steps. We have time, I think we’ll make one addition next week and we’re still looking at what’s out there.

Marsch on Raphinha and Phillips exits

We know we lost two great players but that allowed us bring in 6 or 7 players that help us play the brand of football we want. We’ll use the situation to make us stronger, I really believe that

Marsch on pre-season progress

We’ve been able to invest heavily in tactics, set-piece ideas, what we want our environment to be like from a team perspective. We’ve made some adjustments at Thorp Arch to be more efficient and clean in what we do. I think we have made incredible progress in the last six weeks. We’re going to see a better version of what I would like us to be on matchday. Additions important for that but players that have been here have had more time to work intensively and minutely on the details.

Dan James is suspended. He will be playing 90 minutes with the 21s tomorrow night, by his request. Liam Cooper has had an Achilles issue from his off-season programme. This week he’s finally been on the pitch doing individual work. We hope by next week he’ll be in team training. Firpo ahead of schedule, but he’s still probably 2-3 weeks away from match eligibility. Forshaw made good progress with a knee-MCL issue, but we’re hopeful he’ll be training next week. Ayling made progress and ahead of schedule. We’re trying not to pressure him too much. He’s been on the pitch, hopeful he can be in training soon. Luis on the pitch today and getting closer to his top speed, hopefully available weekend after next.

Not long to go now. Text updates to follow.

The YEP podcast is back

The Inside Elland Road podcast is back with YEP chief football writer Graham Smyth and Leeds United journalist Joe Donnohue. Catch up with all the latest Leeds news and transfers by subscribing now.

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We’ll be recording another episode straight after Jesse Marsch’s press conference this afternoon so stay tuned for that.

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