Jesse Marsch has spoken with the media at his pre-match press conference, ahead of Wednesday night’s clash with Chelsea under the lights of Elland Road.

The Leeds United head coach began as always by giving an injury update on his side, prior to the game. 

He said: “Liam Cooper, last time I said he would be ready, he trained and we thought he would be available. 

“Then he had a small reaction leading up to the match [Arsenal away] and we all just felt like it was prudent he didn’t push himself with the possibility we could lose him for remaining games. 

“Now he’s trained yesterday, I believe after that, going into this next phase that he is better and has less pain, so will be available for tomorrow [against Chelsea].

“Patrick Bamford is on the pitch doing individual work, hopefully in team training by the end of the week and he’s doing fairly well. 

“It’s day to day but we’re monitoring his progress and we’re on track, he won’t be available for tomorrow [against Chelsea]. The rest are all the same.”

Marsch was then asked about what he expects when coming up against Chelsea in midweek, a team that are the current European and World Champions under the guidance of Thomas Tuchel.

“I think being pragmatic in these moments against the best opponents is always important, but then also is finding times to be aggressive, especially at home,” the head coach explained. 

“We all know our fans don’t want to see us sit in our box for 90 minutes, they want to see us be aggressive and bring energy to the game, and we want to do that.

“But, we want to be pragmatic in our ability to do that, we don’t want to be careless and reckless, we want to be thoughtful and intelligent with our tactical plan and then our ability to be aggressive in the right moments.”

Finally, the head coach was asked about the mentality and positivity he instills in his squad as they approach the final three games of the season.

“That’s definitely my way of leading, being positive,” Marsch stated.  

“We had a talk yesterday, what’s involved in the moment - well in the moment if you look at the nine games I’ve been here, there have been a lot of good performances and we’ve picked up points in a lot of matches.

“We have to accept that we’re in this situation but we have to stay strong and play with no regrets, make sure we go after it and push to do everything we can. 

“On game day we have to be a combination of pragmatic, clever and tactically be sharp, defend our goal and find ways to be dangerous.”