Mens

Jesse Marsch: We know we have to be at our best

Head coach ahead of Brentford clash.

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Jesse Marsch has spoken with the media ahead of the final Premier League match of the season for his side, where they will face Brentford.

The Whites travel to the Brentford Community Stadium in West London knowing that they need to better Burnley’s result, if they are to climb out of the bottom three on the final day.

The head coach began with a fitness update on the squad, starting by mentioning a possible return to action for Patrick Bamford.

He said: “Bamford has looked really good this week. We’ve not made a decision on Sunday yet, hopefully we can make a decision in next couple of days about that.

“Luke Ayling had successful surgery yesterday. Hopefully it's not too long, between two and four months. It's a knee issue that he needs to sort out.

“Tyler Roberts had his first day back in training today, he’ll be ready for the start of next season.”

The task at hand for Leeds United is now clear, going into the last day. The Whites will be in a head to head battle with Burnley and must better the result the Clarets get, at home to Newcastle.

“We're excited for this challenge,” Marsch explained.

“We know we have to be at our best. I never came here to think it would be easy, I knew we'd have to fight for everything. I'll make sure we'll do this on Sunday.

“We want to be aggressive, we know we want to win. If we win we give ourselves the best chance. We have to start well and get an early lead.

“I’ve been in these situations before. If it's the last day you need to know a bit of what's going on in the other matches, we will have communication with the team at half-time.”

On the challenges posed by Brentford themselves - who could secure a top 10 finish in the table with a win - the head coach knows it will be a tough match against the Bees.

“There are moments in the phases of the match that I think we have to manage,” the head coach stated, on the opposition.

"They’re good against the ball and good in pressing moments, but they also have really good movements when they have the ball.

“Christian Eriksen is key for them, he’s had an incredibly positive impact on their team since he’s got healthy again, which is obviously a great story in football.

“One thing you know about them is set piece situations, they’re very creative, they have dynamic players, Eriksen puts very good balls in and they have a lot of variants in what they do.

“We’ve prepared our team. Today was a set piece day so we worked entirely on video and on the pitch making sure we know what we want those moments to look like.”

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