Jesse Marsch: We know they’re a good team

Jesse Marsch: We know they’re a good team

Head coach previews Arsenal match.

Jesse Marsch has spoken to the media at his pre-match press conference, ahead of Sunday’s trip to the Emirates Stadium to take on Arsenal.

The Whites go into the match unbeaten in three away from home and they will be looking to extend that run this weekend, against another tough opponent.

The head coach began with an update on the fitness of his squad.

“Stuart Dallas has had a successful surgery and they believe the outcome was very positive,” Marsch explained.

“They’ve said it will be a long recovery but they believe he will have a full recovery. He has had 400 to 500 messages from fans, family and friends, we know he is loved, and this moment proves it more than anything.

“I don’t want to speak for Stuart, but I have heard he has been so appreciative of people reaching out and extending their concerns and their love towards him.

“Patrick Bamford has been on the [training] pitch, so we remain cautiously optimistic with that. Tyler Roberts, Adam Forshaw and Crysencio Summerville are moving in the right direction.

“Liam Cooper trained today, Diego Llorente trained today, so other than the four or five mentioned, we should have our full complement of players.”

Sunday’s opponents are in fourth place in the Premier League table, but still have hopes of finishing higher. Leeds remain in an intense battle down the bottom and Marsch was asked about the permutations of results elsewhere, as well as his own.

He said: “All I care about is focusing on each match, and right now that’s on Arsenal. The key is to try to do everything you can to control your own results, that’s my strategy.

“We will try to win the game for sure. We respect Arsenal a lot, they have a lot of quality players and they’ve developed a lot over the past few years with Mikel Arteta.

“We’ve gone over a lot of what we want the game to look like and what their strengths are, so we know they’re a good team.

“They like to spread the field, play with combinations, they’re a passing team and have very good movement.

“So, our ability to limit that and then have ability to still command the game with the ball, be good in possession and in transition phases. 

“One thing that was disappointing in the Manchester City game was that we’ve been relatively stable in defensive set-pieces, then we gave up two.

“So, we talked through that a little bit and worked on it again on the pitch, I expect us to be better at that in the next four games.”

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