Watford v Leeds United: Jesse Marsch press conference every word - Gelhardt, Phillips, Summerville, Meslier, Klaesson, Victor Orta meeting - YEP 7/4/22

Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch spoke to the media today ahead of Saturday's crunch clash at fellow Premier League relegation battlers Watford.

By Lee Sobot

Watford have lost four of their last six games and the Hornets only have 22 points but Roy Hodgson's side have a game in hand on fifth-bottom Leeds who are eight points ahead of them.

Jesse Marsch's Whites are now on a three-match unbeaten run having followed up epic victories at home to Norwich City and away at Wolves before the international break with Saturday's 1-1 draw against Southampton at Elland Road.

Jesse spoke to the media at 1pm on Thursday lunchtime and here is every word from the Whites head coach.

Watford v Leeds United: Jesse Marsch press conference every word

First up - team news

“I will talk a little about some injuries like I have done recently and then we will go into questions. There’s no real updates other than Tyler, Junior and Patrick are all making good progress and then Jamie Shackleton is almost ready to train but not quite. And most of the other players I think are available and ready to go, I think all of them are available.”

On Cooper and Phillips being back

“I said after the match that both will have a big effect in our group both on the pitch and off. Liam, I thought, put in a courageous 90-plus minute performance and was one of our best players in the match and matched tactically what we want from the game which I think in his first run out was really impressive for him to adapt so quickly and easily. And then to have Kalvin on the pitch I think everybody saw that it brought poise to our group, that he helped settled the game down. I heard him say after the game that he didn’t do much but just by being on the pitch for us I think that that presence meant a lot. It’s really great to have those guys back and we used this week to get them more and more to 100 per cent so I think they will be ready to contribute on Saturday.”

On Watford

“I think that Watford are a really disciplined, defensive group. They don’t give much away, they stay pretty organised, they stay very compact, sometimes defending deep. But they are incredibly aggressive and often lethal in transition moments. They have the second most chances of shots in transition in counter phases in matches in the league and it’s because they really look to play to that strength so we have to be very aware of that and often Watford is most dangerous when we have the ball. We have to make sure that we are balanced and how compact we are in our defence phases and counter pressing phases to make sure that we don’t allow their attacking players to be in open spaces and running at our defensive group. It’s a little bit tricky preparing for them because they rotate a lot of players, they have a talented group, a lot of good one v one players and every time I prepare for a match in this league it is hard to find weaknesses in the ways that teams do things. I know that Watford is a team that is low on the table and fighting relegation but I still think that Roy Hodgson has done a good job with them, that they are disciplined and organised and it will not be an easy match for us.”

On Hodgson still getting involved in training

“I have watched him for years in a lot of different places. He has been at the national team in a lot of different places and he has had an incredible career. The passion that he still has at his age is something to admire and I don’t know what I’ll be doing then because one year in a trainers’ life/in a manager’s life can feel like ten.”

Jesse is then told he is half his age...

“No he’s not! I have so much respect for the career that he has had and what he has accomplished in his career, no doubt.”

On the big gap after the Watford game

“When the schedule comes out and we have to play a lot of games in a short amount of time or we have a pause, it’s about using those moments in the best way we possibly can to maximise every experience that we have. I am not the type that looks at when we have short turnaround or when we have long pauses, I think with short turnaround it is an opportunity for more players to get an opportunity to play and show that they are ready and my job to prepare the group and every single player within the group is really important in those moments. And then in the moment when we are still adapting to a new style of play and new demands physically for what we want the games to look like, training days to look like, a little bit more time can be a real benefit. For me, right now, it’s about focusing on everything that we need to do to be prepared for what Saturday is going to require.”

On 30 points so far - when you look at Chelsea, City and Arsenal coming up, how important is it to get points as quickly you can

“I look only at this match right now and I think that we have to understand what the mindset of Watford, that this is a massive opportunity for them to collect points and close the gap and so for us to focus on entirely what this game requires, to understand the mindset and mentality of what Watford will have, to understand that playing against a good team at their place will not be easy. All of these things are exactly what we are going to be focused on and prepared for and I think our group, especially after Aston Villa, has shown an understanding of exactly what is necessary for every match so we will make sure that we do it very carefully and prudently for this one.”

One month in for you now - how have you settled in, you seem to be a nice fit?

“I am really happy here, really happy in every way. My family is here, we love living in this area, we find the people here in Yorkshire incredibly friendly and open and helpful. The club, I think, has a lot of expertise and a lot of really wonderful people and skilled, good people and then the players working with the team have been amazing. I feel like this is a really great fit for me and I just want to do everything that I can to help this team achieve in the moment and game to game.”

On Joffy

“One of the reasons I didn’t include him in the injury report is because he hasn’t trained every day this week but we think he will train tomorrow and we think he will be available for the match on the weekend and then how he use him and what is the situation for him we will evaluate that as he go. With him and while I have been here it’s been so unfortunate because there was a back problem and then there was a little bit of a false Covid and then it’s been this injury. We can always second guess ourselves and say should be play players in 23s if we want them on the weekend but players need game practice, they need time on the pitch, they need to continue to put our new philosophy of football into practise on game day and so it was really important for Joffy to play in this match for us and it was a shame that he picked this injury up but we think he will be available for Saturday. It’s a knock that led to a contusion and swelling and every day it has got better. I think he will train tomorrow and be available.”

On Summerville’s hat-trick for the 23s

“I thought he played fantastic. I think that he has grown since I have been here more and more and more. I have talked to him about his behaviour and mentality and professional behaviour every day off the pitch and what he needs to be like when he shows up here, what the work week needs to look like and then how to adapt to the style of play that we want and how to continue learning the tactics and behaviours. And for me he has grown a lot in the last month and I think this performance is a representation of his professional behaviour, his work ethic, his mentality to try to learn and adapt. Even when I see that we are going to five substitutions in the future, I think of players like him, like Joffy, like Sam Greenwood, like Charlie Cresswell that deserve more chances to play because of the quality the have, because of the work they put in the week and so it’s a shame for me now that I can only use three subs to impact the game and I would love to be able to have Cree in more important moments for us. I think that he is doing a great job in the matches, showing that he is learning more and that he is more prepared and that we can count on him more and more.”

On Burnley’s win and the table - is it about how high you can finish or just avoiding the bottom three?

“The reality is we are still in a relegation battle, we know that, we are not foolish or naive to that. But, again, 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 he 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.”

Do you sense a confidence from the squad that you will stay up?

“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.”

When you arrived, what were the areas that you thought you needed to work on in terms of confidence to get to the level they are at now?

“It was easy to see the stress on the players’ faces during the matches. That was the no 1 thing so when I first came I was just trying to relieve the tension and the focus on the results and the worry about what was happening in the table. Now, for me to create a process for the players to transition out of the playing style that Marcelo had to what I want them to be, there are so many details that go into that but that’s what I have been doing, every day going into details and going more into behaviours and more into understanding and creating training sessions that are reinforcing exactly those things. So coming out of every game there could be a hundred topics that I could touch on but what I am trying to focus on is exactly the topics that will help us for the next opponent and in our process to improve and get closer to ideally what I want us to be in a year, two years, whatever the process here is and to be fair the players understand that, they grasp it and they put it to practice at a high level every day. I said it was our best counter pressing game, it definitely was but we have so much room to improve there. It was a second ball day because now on the day Southampton decided to play literally every second pass low so we had to then think about how to close our team, how to be in position to pick up second balls and what kind of actions and tactics we want from that moment on, still being sharp in defending in set pieces and attacking set pieces, I think we have done a good job there but there’s more improvement we can make. Our build up phase, I think, again, was good against Southampton but then how it leads to us being a little bit more effective and dangerous in the last third is what I said after the match is having more advantages into chances and chances into goals, we are still developing that phase. But, again, it’s about putting the building blocks together and creating clarity for the group so they understand how all of those things can improve and then how to execute on game day.”

How difficult was it getting players to buy into going from Bielsaball to 100 to 70

“You could ask some of them about that specifically but what I would guess and say is that from the first day I came I laid out a tactical plan with details and terminology and I tried to then with the tactics describe how we want to play moving forward and now that they have a broader understanding of it, now we are able to go a little bit more into the details and into the minutiae to help them understand how little things can make a much bigger difference so so that’s nice, it’s a good feeling to be in that stage and not just throwing a million things at them and that’s a credit to them and their ability to adapt. You use the words ‘buy in’ and I would guess that the buy in has come from the fact that they can see the advantages from the way that we are trying to play, they can see the benefits and when they can also feel the benefits on the pitch and the power of what we are trying to accomplish then it gets them more excited about trying to learn more and trying to put more into practice so that is the process that has been developed but I think we are only in the initial phases of where I think we can really go and at what the end goal will be.”

A lot of the goals have been conceded out wide - how do you better protect yourself there?

“Let me just think about that for a second...I wouldn’t totally agree with that. I think that a big part of our system of moving is not that the wide areas are open, it’s that we are always ready to attack every situation together. If we are too wide then we have too many gaps in our team and then we give up too much space in transition moments, in crossing moments, in any defensive moments. We’re certainly not as expansive as what we were in the past but a big part of that is to control the opponent at all moments.“I would say a big reason why we have defended better is because we’re not so expansive and now it’s about how to still unbalance the opponent, even though we are more compact than what we were and I think that if you look at expected goals, if you look at chances created and if you look at any of these data points I think we have been better in those areas and it is because they are understanding what the strategies are and what the tactics are. But we can still be better. By saying we don’t play wide is incorrect but we know where the goal is and it’s not in the corner, it’s in the middle of the field and we want to be vertical and we want to make sure that the opponent knows that are ready to be vertical at all moments and, again, that will mean the opponent has to be more cautious about how much they want to push in attack. These are all strategies and then the tactics matched with the strategies and I think our team is getting more and more comfortable and understanding more and more of what that is and what that means.”

With Kalvin being back you will have a midfield selection headache, how much weight do you give to training performance or form or specific needs of the team?

“I would say I look at all of it. I’m a big believer that training means something and so I’m on top of it. There’s different kinds of managers. There’s some managers that run everything, there’s some managers that don’t run anything and just watch to try to evaluate how players are performing. Right now, we’re certainly in a phase where I need to be on top of training because I am really reinforcing the behaviours that we need every day but I also cannot deny that while I am doing that I can also evaluate how guy are training and who is grasping concepts at the fastest rates. An example for me is how Robin Koch has performed very well in training and he hasn’t always been rewarded with decisions on match day. But I am very much aware that when we need him, if we need him or that we need to think about carefully how to use him more on game day that his performances mean something and then it’s looking about the opponent every day and thinking about what’s the best formation, what’s the best group, how do we use all the tools that we have available and players and qualities and everything to give ourselves the best chance to perform and win games. I think my job is to do all of those things and then make sure that I reinforce with the player group and the team as a whole that I believe in them and that I am helping them understand how to get better as individuals and as a group so that all leads us to decisions on game day.”

On Meslier and what is it you want from your keepers in this system?

“First of all, I think Illan’s talent is massive. He is a young goalkeeper that is as good as any young goalkeeper I have ever seen so that’s really exciting. And then he has a really good mentality, he is a worker, he wants to learn, he wants to improve. “I think that Marcos (Abad) has also done a very good job with being a mentor for him and a teacher so they have a good relationship and I think, for me, how I work, is I can’t go through technically and tactically every detail for a goalkeeper, like goalkeeper coaches can. The way work I is that I trust the goalkeeper coach a lot to then understand how to help the player adapt to the things that I want. “Certainly, being the last defender is always really important because we like to play very aggressively with our backline and then what I can do with my experiences is I can see how to help a goalkeeper with his mentality, with his decision making, when he has the ball in his hands, that he is the quarterback of that situation and then understands what kind of rhythm of play that we want within the match. “And so I’ll talk more about those types of things than I will, did he move one step to the left? Did he move one step to the right? That, I’m not as good at evaluating. “But I think that the work that Marcos and I have had together with the staff has been quite good and then the work we’ve had with the goalkeeper group has also I think been very good. “That being said, the last word I said to Kristoffer (Klaesson) before he stepped out on the match (at Wolves) is that he’s trained well, that he’s had that mentality to do whatever he can to be best that he can in training every day and now’s the time to reward himself for that work and I can only say that when we needed him he came up massively in a massive game and we know that now that if we ever need him, that he’s ready to go. “I love that in young goalkeepers, I had a young goalkeeper in Salzburg that we had to put into a Champions League match 30 minutes into the match and it was a similar type of message. “His name was Carlos and he had the ball and a bib on and he almost went on the pitch with the ball and the bib because I think that he knew it was a big moment and a nervous moment. “But he went on and played fantastic and so that for me is always a reflection of the individual and the players but also the environment we create where we show that we believe in every guy that’s here.”

You said you were meeting with Victor Orta about transfer strategy - any update?

“Yesterday we had that meeting and to be honest we didn’t go into too many details about what our needs are, what players we are thinking about either that need to go or come or whatever. It was more about educating the scouting department on what we are trying to achieve tactically, what kind of players we are looking for, creating profiles of players in each position, also then updating where we think we are with our current group and then each individual and their adaptation to what we are doing. I think it was a very useful meeting and then for me to continue to think about as we go forward, how to continue to squad build in a way. For me, what I like to do is to look at where we are now, where we want to be in six months, where we want to be in a year, where we want to be in two years and then kind of map out how that all starts to play itself out.”

On learning from other managers - what has the environment been like for that after games?

“I would say congenial, maybe too congenial for me! “But I appreciate that manager respect - I call it a shared misery - and the respect for that shared misery is pretty strong here in England. “We had Adrian Heath in the US and so he coached at Orlando and then he coached in Minnesota and he was always really good with me after the match to say ‘come and have a beer’. and hesitantly I did it and I found it incredibly rewarding. “I want to acknowledge the work that other people do and I do respect and appreciate the work that other people do in this business. “It’s hard for me to sometimes be friendly with competitors because in my mind I want to not like them. “But when I wind up liking them, usually I think the respect grows. “But I like the motivation when I am driven to want to beat someone. “But sometimes, like I said with Ralph Hasenhuttl, my respect for him is so high and when we played against him...I never want the players to feel the personal situation between me and the coach or the other manager but I certainly feel the competitive juices on those days. Certainly, I had a really nice talk with Ralph Hasenhuttl after the match, Brendan Rodgers was very generous with some time after the match, Dean Smith was mad at me for not shaking his hand so we didn’t spend as much time after the match but in general I know the level of respect for the managerial work in this country and in this league is so high so it’s nice to be apart of that.”

Do you get involved on the training ground like Roy did with his assist for Joao Pedro’s goal?

“Yeah. I like to run training sessions, if we do little exercises and we need an extra man then I can jump in and play sometimes. I am very, very limited and I hate being that guy that looks so old on the pitch but that’s the reality of what I am. But in everything I do with the group I try and convey an energy that’s about being positive about being aggressive, about enjoying our work together but also getting better every day so that includes when I step out on the pitch and play a little bit.”

Does learning from other managers give a better appreciation of the Premier League culture?

“No. Anyone in the world knows that this is the best league in the world and all I need to do is watch opponent video when I prepare to develop high levels of respect for every team and every manager because this is I think the biggest headache I have every week is watching the opposition and trying to find weaknesses and identify strengths. “It means that the work that we do has to be at such a high level to give us a chance so I appreciate that it makes me better and it keeps me on my toes and I certainly have to put a lot into every week but it gives you headaches.”

On plans to expand the Champions League with places extra places going to those who already have past experience of it?

“One of the reasons I respect that tournament so much is because when we were at Salzburg we had to fight like hell to be a part of it. Even the leagues like that like the Austrian and the Czech Republic and Switzerland, they have to fight as a league to gain places in the tournament. That is what I love about the tournament is that you have to earn your way in and there is a little bit of a David Goliath in the group phases and how you manage those situations. “To do anything to compromise the integrity of the tournament like they were trying with the Super League, for me, doesn’t make any sense. Certainly, in football, and if I come from an American sports perspective, we are all about parity and salary caps and making sure everybody has a chance. “I think that already the heavily weighted clubs are heavily weighted enough and if in a year they have a down year and they are not able to perform at the way that they should then they shouldn’t be included. “You have to earn your way into the Champions League, that’s my opinion.”