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

“I know that if we play our 4-3-3 that becomes a 3-4-3, that’s a better position to play Junior in is that that variable left winger position. But given how we’ve been using different players, I decided to start with Junior more as the three build up and then we kind of switched more to a flexible sometimes we call it a three and a half four build up and then you saw him come more alive and I thought impact the game in a really good way. I thought his second half was very good. Obviously I knew that but going into the match and even when I talked before about putting players in positions that they’re comfortable, that was one that I was thinking of so I was happy to see Junior play so well in the second half, that’s the first thing and the second is I think we know that that he can be a reliable defender but that his real strength is his ability to get on the ball, get in the attack, be active and I thought again in the second half, he was a big part of us getting back in the match.”

“I think I want to figure out a way to help incorporate Max quickly because I think he can be a part of us moving forward in a positive manner. But I also know that we’re getting a lot out of other guys too and I want to make sure that I get that balance right and I set Max up to succeed and that I set the team up to succeed, a little bit how I was talking about even making the change against Cardiff. I think that we have even when you look at the fixture list coming up, you can see that we have a lot of matches, and we’re going to have to get the balance right of who to play when. Ideally, like against Cardiff, I wouldn’t want to make so much of a rotation in the squad but given where we were with a few injury situations we needed a few more days for guys to get back to 100 per cent so it worked out that way. But my goal will be in the future to not have such a big rotation and just to make a few positions here and there or sometimes go match to match with the same group.” 

“Other than some of the long term ones and how we choose to look at it is non contact versus contact. So the reason I bring up Creee is because obviously you don’t want your attackers to be getting contact injuries. But the non contact injuries I think, for the most part, have been pretty good. The balance for me is we have a lot of discussions here with our physical team. I have my methods and then there’s methods that were done in the past. And then there’s those methods that are core to the different people and the experiences that they have and how to blend them together to get a team that can perform at its absolute highest level physically but balance that with freshness and lack of injuries is a big challenge. Obviously, the younger the team you have, the better chance you have to limit muscle injuries. But for the most part, I think we’re on the lower end this season of that and more of the injuries are contact type injuries. Then you have some of the players that have been here for a while that are a little bit older that are struggling with chronic issues. So Adam Forshaw trying to keep him as fit and healthy and get that balance right, Patrick Bamford, even sometimes with Coops, how we do how we get that part, right. Those are still challenges and the balance of how hard we push them, how many days off we give them, what kind of procedures we provide them so that they have the best chance to be at 100 per cent or as close to it as possible. is always a little tricky.”

“The thing I’ve always said about our group here is the character of the team is so strong and so whoever we’ve added at any given moment or had discussions with, a lot of it is trying to get to the core of who they are as people and what that will mean to the overall group. Because that is massive for us, that’s maybe on line one the most important thing. And so when Max’s name, when we started to discuss that, I know who he is. I know what kind of leader is, I know what kind of man he is, obviously I know what kind of player he is but more importantly I think he’s the type of person that will always be up for the biggest challenges and want to be part of a team, a real team. Even now, I do my research, Victor does his research, Andrea, we all do our own and the fact that Max was also at Sevilla which obviously Victor has a long history with, I think helped in the overall process of all of us feeling really comfortable that Max was the right kind of guy to bring into our environment. But I know that Max, he’s still young, and he has to establish himself with his team and this league. But I know from that perspective that he has a very high ceiling in terms of what his leadership can be.”  

“The games are so demanding. And I’ll tell you, most places I’ve been, I’m not standing up on the touchline as much as I am here. One of the reasons is because I hate sitting in the dugout at Elland Road because the eye level view is terrible. But another is that I feel the need to try to help them in moments. My goal is always to make myself as obsolete as possible. And in Germany, I got ridiculed for saying that, and maybe my German wasn’t able to express it quite as well but I believe that the job of a leader is to make himself obsolete, is to provide the people within an organisation, all the tools that they need to understand what the plan is, how to execute it and how to be themselves and how to carry it out as best as possible and so obviously I’m not pleased with the fact that I haven’t gotten there yet. It never really gets there but I need to move the needle that way. I need to try to continue to provide them with all the tools they need to believe that they can be the team that I know that they can so that has to do with everything that I do, the tactical part, the leadership part, the reinforcement, the trying to stay positive and show them belief, all those things are right now I think of utmost importance.”

“I have tried to eliminate most discussions about the referees or with the referees that’s either in the media or behind closed doors just because I haven’t found it to be very useful. In the end, I can only go on the different leagues I’ve been at internally, there’s been discussion within the referee ranks about protecting attacking players. I think the biggest thing that they’ve done here in England that makes it different than a lot of leagues is the automatic three game ban on straight reds which I think is a good thing. But then I think there’s also just managing it in the match to make sure that you know the players that most fans come to see have the best chance of being on the pitch.”

“I think the point would be that we always want to be respectful. I think in our sport it’s so important to maintain high levels of respect and I know within our group we have that at the highest level. I think our fans are great, they show passion, they want the team to be successful but they can be hard on the team sometimes and hard on me about what we’re doing and we understand that and I think I love how much they love Willy. I will be walking around my house chanting or like whistling the tune in my head sometimes but just is there a way to modify it to be as passionate but be more respectful, that’s what I would say.”

“For me, in those moments, you just feel bad for Cree because you know he’s in a good way and you want him to continue his process. He took a whack by the way at Elche, a really bad whack that he never really came back from and then he’s taken more whacks in the matches recently and and when you’re not the biggest guy but you’re very nimble and quick and very difficult for defenders to deal with, sometimes it’s a tactic to be aggressive and sometimes it’s just that they’re too fast for the opponent. But of course like when we lost Luis for a long time and when we’ve lost Patrick, different guys that we feel are important, it’s disappointing because we want the team to have the chance to be at its best with all of our complement of our best players but this is also part of the reality and it’s time for other guys to step up and one of the good things was to see Sonny Perkins, when he had his opportunity to step up for the team in a big way he was ready and he helped us.”