Leeds United v Cardiff City: Jesse Marsch press conference every word on Georginio Rutter, FA Cup intent, injuries and Joe Gelhardt future

Whites boss Jesse Marsch spoke to the media today ahead of Wednesday night’s FA Cup third round replay against Championship strugglers Cardiff City at Elland Road.
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Leeds were heading out of the competition entering stoppage time of the initial tie at Cardiff who led 2-1 until Sonny Perkins struck a 93rd-minute leveller. The 18-year-old’s strike sent the tie to a replay and Marsch held his pre-match press conference at 12 noon from Thorp Arch today. Here is a full transcribe of everything that United’s American head coach had to say.

Leeds United v Cardiff City: Jesse Marsch press conference every word

Key Events

  • FA Cup third round replay
  • Wednesday night 7.45pm kick-off at Elland Road
  • Winners visit Accrington or Boreham Wood in round four

For Jesse Marsch’s pre-Cardiff press conference. Full coverage to follow here.

Jesse Marsch will be with us shortly, injury updates and his first words on record signing Georginio Rutter, and Cardiff of course.

Jesse takes his seat

“I’ll start with the injury list. Adam, Cree, Stuart and Archie will be out for this match. The other one that is very questionable/doubtful is Coops. In warm up yesterday he sustained a little bit of a strange knee injury so we will see. It will probably be a decision for tomorrow but I would guess that it might be a little bit difficult for him. But Luis Sinisterra trained yesterday and he has the potential to be in the squad so we will evaluate that today and see what the possibilities are but he looked fantastic and we are excited to have him back.”

On Rutter - what will he bring to you and how much do you need him right now?

“Obviously, everything that we’re trying to do here, we’re looking more what’s important for the long term project. Where we are in the moment, there’s obviously a lot of thinking from the outside and a lot of pressure from different situations that every result means a lot. Obviously that’s always the case. I would say more that we identified Georginio.I’ve known him for a while. He is someone even I watched when I was at Leipzig. It’s a guy who I think is an explosive footballer, a talented player with a lot of potential and when we have done our homework we have also learned and we found this out relatively quickly what a good person he is, what a hard worker he is, how much he wants to try to achieve for himself. And then, when you coach players for Germany, that have been in Germany, there’s a real high level of tactical education and I sat down with Georginio yesterday and we talked a lot about what we tried to do and our playing model and what our philosophies are and what our strategies and vocabulary and he already was very up to speed and understands most of it. It was a really intelligent football conversation and one that gives me real hope that he can acclimate quickly. So that, in the end, all of those factors were why he was the player that we fought after.”

“I think he has flexibility. You know, one of the interesting things is when we did even research on him, right foot versus left foot. When you look at most players, they’re very right or left foot dominant, obviously, like someone who’s both footed wind up being somewhere between 20 and 25 per cent on their weak foot, that’s how much they touch and move with the ball on that foot. Georginio is 50-50, he is maybe the most two footed player that I’ve ever seen. And he’s obviously strong with his left but his ability to drive in both directions, his ability in one of the one situations, his ability to run in transition, his fitness levels, speed, quickness, intelligence, there’s a lot of big upside and potential with him. I think we can use him as a striker, I think we can use him as a wide player, I think we can use him as a second striker so I think there’s a lot of flexibility. We talked about that yesterday and he’s very open to helping the team in whatever way is necessary and I think he can acclimate quickly.”

It's a lot of money for Rutter - does that mean that's it for January?

“I won’t talk about any more transfers, okay? But we are really happy with both additions, really happy.”

How close are you to getting the team you want here?

“Friday was the second most high intensity running performance in the last five years of the Premier League. I think it was a match that showcased the way that I would like our team to play and from a physical perspective, from a tactical perspective, from a mental mentality perspective, it was a really strong strong statement for what we want to be. And, you know, frankly, if I’m critical of myself, I’m frustrated that I haven’t been able to access that quicker and that’s been a source of even, you know, there was discussion a week ago about some of my frustration that I was showing on the bench at different times and that was at the source of my frustration, trying to figure out how to help the players execute more clearly what we want it to be. So I’m happy that we did that. I wish they would have been rewarded with the result because I think it would have created ease in everything that we’re doing. However, it gave me real belief, and more importantly, the players right now have real belief so they now have a very clear example of the potential that they have and what I said to him is, now’s the chance for us to really start a process to become better.”

I think most people would agree, you probably got out of jail down at Cardiff in the first game. For this one, different manager, do you take that into consideration and how will you address that?

“I would argue differently. The game was dominant, right? We dug ourselves a hole in that match but by many standards, especially in the second half, we are absolutely dominant. They had 0.0 expected goals in the second half and we were on top of the match. Now, we were lucky with the way we scored the last second goal, you’re absolutely correct about that. I think we’ll see a stronger side. They played a lot of reserve players I think and I think we will see more like the team they played against Wigan on the weekend. I think that the new manager will want the job and will try to get his team to perform that way and go for the win. He has some history with some certain people that I think also have a similar methodology to what we tried to do here. Valérien Ismaël is a coach that I know well from Austria and a very good coach. He was at West Brom and they were at Besiktas together so I expect him to play a little more intensively than they did at Cardiff but still look at the well and catch us on the counter so we will be prepared for that.”

On Accrington or Boreham Wood in the next round?

“We always watch a lot of opponents’ last ten matches and then evaluate how we create match plans against them so this will be the same and we will be ready. Right now, our total focus is just to take care of business and then when we cross that bridge, when we come to that bridge, we will be ready to cross it.”