Jesse Marsch's first Leeds United press conference every word: Bielsa, Bamford, Phillips, 49ers

“For me, it’ a lot of things, it’s not one thing. Obviously a lot of teams have developed match plans against the way that the team had played here that were starting to become very successful and easier and easier to implement. So clearly it’s not just saying we need to defend better. That is clear. But it’s more about what are the tactics to try to manage the situation effectively so that we can make sure that in all moments we are doing things as a group and we are making things as difficult as we can of opponents and that includes not just the run of play but set pieces and dead ball situations. We have worked through and in the end to add to that, of course I have a million things that I have on my mind that I want to implement but what’s important for me think is to understand how to make the simple things the clearest right now and add complexity as we go on and getting that balance right so we are not overloading the players but making it clear to them what’s important and allowing them on matchday to go out and be their best.”

“Clearly the adjustment of tactics is number one and so making it clear as to what our playing style is going to be moving forward and communicating that and then implementing it on the pitch every day even so when not every player has been available. But, like I said, we have had video sessions every day and the attention span and the concentration, you can see there is excitement about the opportunity to try some new things. And then the investment in the people. If you talk about me as a manager that’s I think what I care about the most. I love tactics and I love football but I really love working with young men and helping them understand how to continue improving to be the best version of themselves. I have had a lot of individual conversations and I have had a lot of conversations in front of the group and I think they are getting to understand me more and more every day.”

“I think the thing that I loved about this team in the past is their fight, their ability to run for each other, to do whatever it takes on the day no matter what the result was. This will have to remain a big part of our DNA but then certainly I think modifying our tactics , having a clear understanding of what we are trying to achieve and what our strategies are, the clarity to work as a group and not just individuals in certain situations and transforming that practical understanding and group mentality into something that will benefit us now and in the future, those are the things that I think are important. But I think my ethos fits well with this club and this community here in Leeds. Even where I am from, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it reminds me a little bit of what Leeds is. I come from a hard-working family, my father worked in a factory for 32 years, I only know working hard and giving everything I have and that’s all I know. I will do that here, I promise that and we will make sure that when we step on the field that that’s what we show.”

“I honestly didn’t feel it because the young men are so energetic, positive and also united. It’s a group that you can tell has already been through a lot and again so then my focus is to how to help them channel those energies and to make them better. I know it’s a big opportunity and I know that there are factions of people that may not accept me so well because of their love for Marcelo but in the end I just want the team to show how good they are and to show that as good as Marcelo is and was, that the team is good too and the players are good so that will be a lot of my focus, is to help those guys really express themselves.”

“This is the fun for me, when you are the manager of a club, its not just about managing the first team for me, it’s about being a leader for the entire sporting side. In the moment, when I talk about prioritising what we need to do, that connection and everything is probably a little bit more on the backburner but in a long term process it will be very clear that we have a good connection and that we have a good way of instructing the type of football that we need to have at the first team level and then what that is like to try and develop that on a daily basis at all the different age groups and all the different levels. But I don’t know exactly how Marcelo did everything. I have had some communication and I know some of the things he did, he did a lot of really positive things and the biggest thing was just the mentality to incorporate young players and to invest in them and clearly whether you talk about the work that was done with us at Salzburg or at New York, our connection with the Academy was a big benefit for everyone involved and certainly for the first team manager.”

“The Leipzig situation is difficult for me to explain clearly. It was, on paper, the right move, because it was inside of our company and in theory a similar type of playing style but then getting there and getting on the ground, I could see that a lot had changed from a lot of perspectives and I had major concerns from the start on whether the things that I wanted to implement were going to work. Unfortunately those feelings played themselves out but I was perfectly acceptable to say that this wasn’t going to work. I should also say that we had a Corona where everyone was hurt, I was in quarantine and before that time we were in fifth place, we had just beaten Dortmund and I could see that things were moving in a positive direction. And it fell apart. What I learned from that and this is why I applied to why I want to be here in Leeds is that what is most important is the connection of people and the similar mindsets on what we want to be and how he want to communicate and how we want to work every day and how we want to play, that that connection among people inside of a club and with the community is what’s most important and again, this is what led me to here.”

“I don’t think that working hard and running performances in training or games has been an issue. The key, for me, of changing some of these demands is that we still maintain and actually build upon that idea of what football is and what character and what hard work for each other is - that’s the balance is to create a different process in terms of how we relate with each other, but maintain and build upon this intensity and belief that that is what can make us different and what can make us good. I’ve communicated that, I will continue to communicate that with the team. I know that I’m not as intense, in terms of the daily process, as Marcelo but the key is that the performances on the pitch include that and my goal is to access their spirit, their hearts, their minds more and more and more so that they can perform even bigger and better than what they have.”

“We’ll have set piece strategies too, I understand that one of the strengths of the group is this locking in on players at the right moment. If we want to talk about the way that I like to think about football, there are moments when we are in man marking phases and man marking moments and our ability to be aggressive, and attack the opponent in those moments is going to be important to the adaptation to the way I want the team to play. Again, I’m not going to give away too much.”

“I’ve played against teams with man marking tactics and what we’ve always tried to do is create counter movements and play behind, right? And this is now what you’ve seen, this has been the strategy of those who have played against Leeds in the last weeks. Obviously, the way we won’t play, that won’t be as simple, it won’t be as easy, and we won’t rely on just one player to follow one other player, it’ll be more about how we shift and adjust as a group and still combat defensive moments that we can come up big.”

“I said that I think I was ready to say that. At the time, if you go back even two weeks I wasn’t 100% sure that I was definitely the next coach of Leeds United. I hoped that - based on our conversations and our positive exchanges - that that was going to be a high possibility. But I know what it’s like. I just left a team halfway through the season, it’s never a good feeling. I’ve learnt in this business that jealousy is a terrible thing, trying to judge people for failures and successes is never good, finding the right fit, and being in a good situation where you vibe with everything around you is often what determines success for a manager, right? So again, I wanted Marcelo to finish on a high note, and for the club to finish on a high note with Marcelo and the fans and, if that was going to be the next possibility for me to be the next person to take over, obviously I was going to be very open about what that would mean.”