Leeds United press conference live: Jesse Marsch provides Patrick Bamford and team news update

He created a lot of firsts for American players, so we’re grateful to him

Their back line now with Koulibaly and Cucurella - intelligence, experience, quality, athleticism, what a formidable defence and then a great goalkeeper behind them. We will try to press them in the right moments, we’re not gonna sit back. With the ball we’re gonna be brave and want to challenge them. They’re also good with set-pieces - we saw with Koulibaly, he’s a beast

Cody has been fantastic, he’s trained really well, he’s fit and ready to go, I thought he played well in the 21s match [vs Norwich]

I know Rasmus really well and the quality he has. I think he’s done well and I think he knows there’s a lot to be learned and that it’s a level up. I said to him ‘the reason you’ve came here is to get out of your comfort zone’ and he knows that. We went through this a little bit at Salzburg and then after two years he was their most impactful player. He said he thought he was making 10, 15, 20 impactful moments per match at Salzburg and now it’s one or two or three.

I still feel to balance out our squad effectively it would be helpful [to add a striker], but we need the right guy. I don’t want to bring in somebody that’s going to take three months to adapt and educate and not be ready to help us. Do they understand the type of football we want to play, do they understand the league, run and press at the level, be intelligent to execute our matchplans, they are our variables. We can’t just pick him out of the sky.

I think Pascal’s doing great. Junior is looking strong in rehab training. Leo Hjelde played well in the U21s game.

He’s taken a lot of the things we’ve talked about and applied them more and more at a higher level. He had an outstanding pre-season. It’s not random, it’s a culmination of him adapting to the league and what we’re trying to achieve and the confidence has grown massively. He’s one of the guys we know will be starting, he’ll wear the captain’s armband, he’ll take penalties. It says a lot about how he’s adapted and a lot about him.

I think we have a team that can cause some havoc. At home we always enjoy playing in Elland Road. The team’s coming together in a good way. We just want them to go on the pitch and play to their abilities. We definitely have a chance.

For Ian it’s been difficult for him. It’s likely we find another solution for him in this time but he’s been really good with the whole process. Mateo Joseph will stay, continue to mature and grow with the 21s.

With him it would be more of a long-term project. That’s one thing with working with Victor, he’s incredibly organised looking at what we need now, what do we need in the winter, next summer.

Every manager wants as many good players in their team as possible. Good players make good managers, not the other way round. We’ve worked really well as a team and Andrea’s tried to support whatever we’ve tried to accomplish from a transfer perspective. I know it’s hard to stay patient but I think the work done in this transfer window is at a really high level.

Adam, Luis and Joffy are ready for sure

I would not rule Liam out. He’s looking strong but I think if it’s not Sunday he’ll be ready very soon.

That doesn’t seem right. If you get a red card you should be out. I think if you get a red card you shouldn’t be able to play the next match. I’ll be disappointed if he’s on the bench.

We know him [Gnonto] and I think we think very highly of him. He’s a very talented player. I think we’re very active in pursuing things. Let’s see how they play out. There will be movement, with us and with other teams. I think some dominoes will fall and we have to be prepared to act on those situations. The conversations and the work behind the scenes has been very active.

I think it highlighted our subbing strategy and needing to act quicker. I thought I could have brought fresher legs on. I thought the tactical changes we tried to make were good. We talked about not going into protection mode. We felt we got the lead because we were aggressive in our pressing.

We’ll be prepared if he’s ready to go and if he’s not

It’s probably a decision we’ll be ready to make tomorrow. We don’t want to risk him but he’s feeling good.