On the brink? Jesse Marsch's strong message about Leeds United mindset as Watford await

New boss Marsch has arrested United's recent slide with epic back-to-back victories at home to Norwich City and away at Wolves before the international break followed by last weekend's 1-1 draw against Southampton at Elland Road.

The seven-point haul and three-game unbeaten run has fifth-bottom Leeds six points clear of the Premier League drop zone but having played more games than the four sides below them ahead of Saturday afternoon's showdown at second-bottom Watford.

Nonetheless, with fourth-bottom Everton woefully struggling for form and Burnley still playing catch up, Leeds are now as big as 4-1 to go down having been considerably shorter and United will now visit a Watford side who have lost their last eight games at home.

Victory would put Marsch's outfit on to 33 points and in all likelihood the brink of safety but United's head coach has fired a strong warning, admitting Leeds are ultimately not out of the mire yet.

“The reality is we are still in a relegation battle," said Marsch

"We know that, we are not foolish or naive to that.

"But watching the table doesn’t do anything to impact our work process and so the best thing for us is to control ourselves and not stress about what the external situation is and I think we have done a really good job of that.

"We have tried to stay focused and calm and disciplined with that mentality since I have been here and I think it has impacted us in a positive way.

"None of us think that we are done or that we are safe or that we are a completed project, it’s all about pushing every day to get to be better and by doing that we know that we can fight for more points.”

Pushed on whether there was a confidence from the squad that Leeds would stay up, Marsch explained: “In general there is a confidence that the team believes in themselves more than they did I think a month ago and I have spoken openly with them about that.

"But the key is to use that confidence in ways to continue to propel us forward and not to get comfortable and think that everything is okay.

"But that urgency and that mindset to push every day has helped us to get to a better place than we were and we have to continue to use that to be even better a month from now.”