'That can launch us' - every word from Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch's pre-Aston Villa press conference

“The point would be that we would always want to be respectful, it’s important to maintain high levels of respect. I think our fans are great and I love how much they love Willy, I will be walking around the house whistling the tune but is there a way to modify it to be be more respectful.”

“Well, it depends on every situation. If we talk about Klichy there was lots of discussions along the way on what was best for him and what was best for us. And then even when he’s here, how we used him and was he happy and could he understand and commit to that or not and then Victor, Angus, Andrea, all of us talk a lot about what’s what’s best for us in terms of our process of moving along and we have committed to a lot of new young players from outside the league because we felt like those are some of the players that would fit best for what we’re trying to develop here. There’s always these little discussions going on and overall I feel like we like our squad.” 

“No, I think it’s more just evaluating at all moments what’s best for the situation.”

“Firstly, the two in 16, I would talk more about the last eight and I would say actually in the last eight then our balance is not bad and I think that we are, in a result way, moving in the right direction. For me, again, trying to get performances to continue to grow and add up to be more and more so that we can be closer to what we’re trying to develop here is even more important and I feel like we’re in a good place and we are poised to have a click or a spark happen that can launch us. Illan, for me, has made major progress. I’ve challenged him to be more of a well rounded goalkeeper that can read the game in all moments so I have sometimes called it the quarterback of the team when he has the ball in his possession and then sometimes almost like a last defender and how he manages those situations. We’ve tried to expand his comfort zone from everything from a leadership perspective to a last defender perspective to decision making perspective and I think we’ve seen a lot of growth in that and at the same time seeing his ability to make saves and make big plays to help us manage results. I like Illan a lot. I think his potential is massive, really massive. I think he’s maybe one of our biggest high potential players and he knows I like him and at the same time he knows that I’m going to challenge him and always to continue to try to grow.”

“Yeah. He’s ready to play. He’s ready.”

“First, from a personality perspective, it’s never easy to come into a new team and I think that this team has strong personalities but I’ve challenged Max to not be passive in the way that he inserts himself. I’ve told him he doesn’t have to run around and tell everybody what to do but I know that one of his main strengths is how vocal he is on the pitch, how clear and how intelligent he is on the pitch and how fearless he is so I think that we saw that (at Cardiff) and, to be honest, when I put them in the match I told him he was going in at centre back then left back then centre back then left back then six then centre back, I’probably change my mind six times because on my mind was I wanted him to have a good start and put him somewhere that he was most comfortable, which is probably cenre back but I also know that he can be impactful at left back in a big way and I also know that he can play the six and in the end I wanted to get the balance right of giving him the best opportunity to have success the first time he stepped on the field for the team, but also put him in a position where I thought he could have the biggest impact to help us get the result in the match. And, in the end, I probably put more emphasis on what was important for the match and that’s the decision I put them in at six and I thought he did a really good job.”

“I would say in general I’ve seen a team that’s more dynamic against the ball, that plays a little bit differently with the ball as well, still very effective in set piece situations, still, what you know is that they have a lot of quality on the pitch, a lot of really good players and when they’re playing confidently that they’re a very good team and very difficult to deal with. I know Emery from playing against Villareal with Salzburg in the Europa League and when we lost 2-0 at home and lost 2-1 away and and his team was very disciplined and defensively sound but also dangerous in counter attacking situations and they had a lot of good players and he has a lot of good players again. So he’s certainly a good manager and I think he’s made a positive impact on them and it’ll be important for us to know that going to Villa Park that we need to be at our best.”

“Yeah, obviously that’s a key. If you were to break it down in general, I think against the ball in some of our defensive situations and what we’ve tried to accomplish in our pressing and counter pressing, we’ve been pretty good. With the ball, we haven’t looked as cohesive and clear and I’m trying to always work with the tactical ideas and adjust certain tactical nuances to give the players the best chance to be successful. Sometimes we’ve asked players to play a little bit in different positions. But I think for the most part, again, my goal is to always put players individually and group on the pitch in ways that they can be successful and where they can feel comfortable and then help them to go after the game in a way where they’re positive in their mind and their confident in what we’re trying to accomplish.Obviously, the last two matches, I think we have a little bit of a slower first half and a much more aggressive second half. And in general what you see with us is when our backs are against the wall that we look and we play freer and we play more aggressive and so I’m trying to get us to incorporate that mindset from the start and to believe that that in all phases of the game that we can be confident, we can be dominant and we can become the team that I know we can become. One of the things I’ve been saying to them lately is that I believe in them and sometimes I think I believe in them more than they maybe believe in themselves and so trying to continue to push them to show how good I know they can be. That will continually be an emphasis.”

“Well, I don’t know that it has really. The goals against Cardiff were getting beat behind our centre backs which hasn’t happened too much this year. And then the goals against West Ham were also a little bit different kinds of goals and so one of the things about switching to the flexible 4-3-3 is to help protect ourselves a little bit more on the back post, because we were getting beat there and clearly opponents were identifying that. That’s a tactic here in England, more so than other places I’ve been, is the chip cross to the back post. And so obviously then we’re trying to address that more to deal with that.”

“Yeah and I think the 4-3-3 we can also use in the midfield three Brenden, we can use Jack, we have used Cree a little bit in that position as well because what we ask of it can be different against the ball than with the ball so we’re evaluating that as well in the future like how to add to that position and get stronger there as well. But I like the guys we have.”