Jesse Marsch reveals next area of Leeds United focus after improvement in particular phase - YEP 18/7/22
Whites boss Jesse Marsch says there will be particular focus on an area of Leeds United's attacking play ahead of Friday morning's final friendly in Australia against Crystal Palace.
By Lee Sobot
Marsch's side fell to their first defeat of the summer in
Sunday's friendly against Aston Villa who recorded a 1-0 victory in Brisbane
through a second-half penalty from Danny Ings.
Leeds, though, had opportunities to score themselves and
Marsch says his new-look side will be looking at their movement in the final
third as well as tinkering with their shape at the back.
United have so far signed six new players this summer and
five of them featured against Villa as Brenden Aaronson, Tyler Adams, Rasmus Kristensen
and Marc Roca all started.
Luis Sinisterra was then introduced midway through the
second-half off the bench.
"It was a good match," reflected Marsch.
"We had some new players on the pitch. We did that
intentionally to try to help them understand what the level of these games are
like.
"For the most part, in the first 60 minutes, we had a
good performance.
"We maybe had a couple too many mistakes that afforded
them a couple of chances.
"If we're a little cleaner in some of our transition
moments, maybe we can find a way to get our goal.
"We're now better in the build-up phase than we were
last year, but now we have to have that lead to better moments in the last
third, some connections and some movements and some ideas of how we want to
unbalance the opponent.
"We still have some work to do on that and we'll focus
on that in the coming days and weeks.
"Then defensively, a couple of things with our backline:
sometimes we're a little bit too tight and when they play big switches, where
we can't get enough pressure on the ball, so there's a few adjustments we need
to make to tactically help deal with some of these moments.
"That's what pre-season is for, to integrate new
players, to keep working on some tactical understanding and to make sure
fitness-wise, health-wise, we're moving forward.
"We were able to check a lot of boxes in that
sense."
Sunday's defeat to Villa was watched by a crowd of 40,918 as
Leeds took on Premier League opposition for the first time this summer in what
was Villa's first ever game in Australia.
"The good part about coming here is the games feel
real, even for pre-season," said Marsch.
"There's good energy in the stadium, you can feel the
passion from both sides of the fan bases.
"It was amazing to see the support for both clubs here
in Australia and certainly, we've enjoyed the chance to interact with our fans,
to play in front of our fans and to feel the passion of what they bring.
