New Leeds boss Jesse Marsch confident about survival despite debut defeat to Leicester
Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch applauds the fans after defeat in the Premier League match at the King Power Stadium, Leicester.
Jesse Marsch kicked off a new era at Leeds Untied with a 1-0 defeat against Leicester City. Despite this, he remains confident about the club’s Premier League survival hopes.
Harvey Barnes scored the only goal of the game as Leeds succumbed to their fifth defeat in six games.
The result leaves the club in 16th place, just two points away from the bottom three. Marsch, who replaced Marcelo Bielsa, has 11 games to try and keep the club in the top flight.
However, despite starting his tenure with a loss, the American believes he saw enough positives to convince him that Premier League survival is more than achievable.
He said: "This is maybe the American in me, but I've learned that sometimes our sport isn't the fairest, but it doesn't matter, you've got to do what you can in this sport to manage.
"In a sport like basketball you score a lot more points and usually the better team manages to emerge. I am very pleased that, after four days where we've changed a lot, there was such clarity.
"There's so many little things that are happening on the pitch that can just be a little bit cleaner and this will take a little bit of time to implement fully, but what a great first step.
"Overall it was a very, very strong first performance. I told them, if we keep playing like this, we're going to get all the points we need.
"The only negative is the result, really. There's so many positive things to come out of that and I have to be very clear with them that we have to see it for exactly what it was."
While the popular Bielsa, who was recognised with regular chanting by the travelling support, was a brooding figure on the touchline and often on his haunches, his successor cut an animated presence throughout.
He regularly breached his technical area, barked instructions at his players and showed plenty of emotion, while he gathered the team together on the centre circle at the final whistle, delivering what seemed an impassioned speech.
Asked what his message was, Marsch replied: "It was real simple - that this was very positive and a big step in the right direction.
"I know the stress and the situation is they want to get points and they have such a desire to achieve. I want to be positive for them, but not just for the sake of being positive, I want them to know how strong that was, how good that was and we're going to use that as momentum to help us continue to get better."
