Jesse Marsch press conference RECAP: Leeds United head coach on Chelsea, Ayling, injuries and more

Being pragmatic against the best opponents is important. But we can also be aggressive. We want to be pragmatic in our ability to do that. We want to be thoughtful and intelligent with our tactical plan.

I love quotes. I love quotes from people of the past. Here we are in the stress of relegation, trying to stay strong with our belief. Just trying to find ways to motivate, inspire our collective mentality so we have the best chance to manage the moments we’re in

The leadership council - five of those players have been injured - it’s reduced our leadership core on the pitch. I’ve challenged all those guys to be around the team, to be positive, to bring the energy to the training ground every day to make sure we know we’re good, we’ve got this. My idea of leadership is about the entire group accessing their qualities and abilities they can be in the most difficult times and that’s where we are.

I’m calm. I’m so focused on exactly what we’re doing right here, right now. My vision is over years, not 12 games. The first step of my vision is staying in the Premiership. This club deserves it, we have to earn it in the moment now. Stress doesn’t help but that’s the situation that we’re in. This is why I love our fans in this stadium because they get it. When I see them in the street and they’re positive with me, this is what pushes us, this is what I think will help us achieve our goal in the next three games. We will use that tomorrow night.

I can promise to them we’re gonna put a team on the pitch that plays with confidence and represents the identity of what this fanbase is. We will make sure when we put a matchplan together, how we want to play on matchday, represents those things.

I can see theoretically why it’s a good time to play them. A team like Chelsea they’ve been through a lot this year on the back of winning a European Championship. They’ve had injuries, a lot of fixtures, up and down form and a big match on the weekend but that is a quality club with a quality manager - they all know how to manage difficult situation. Their line-up, it doesn’t matter, we have to prepare and deliver our best.

It’s about being aggressive against the ball, about knowing we’re good, knowing we’re stronger together with our group mentality. I can say the work on the pitch has gotten clearer and then it’s about now in a stressful situation and against very good opponents to execute and that’s what it comes down to: the clarity of execution.

In some ways in the past three months, I feel like I’ve been more of a video analyst rather than a manager. My wife is sick of me sitting at the computer. It’s important for me to translate what I need from them in their roles on matchday. It’s certainly not been perfect. I’ve been careful not to overwhelm them, to understand that it’s not going to be perfect and I’ve been careful to introduce less than more at the right times because I still want them to go out on matchday and play.

We could rearrange to be more tactically dangerous and see if we could poach one more goal. We switched to go with Dan up top and more of a 4-3-2 towards the end of the match. The benefit of COVID was in empty stadiums you could communicate with the players more.

Not at all. I see a person who is 100% invested. His emotion could be interpreted as a lack of discipline, I see it as total investment. That part for me has been no talking point or thought at all. He’s all in.