You made four changes tonight and you had a performance that was the complete reverse of the weekend, how do you explain that?
Well, I think there's parts of the first half that were actually quite good, but we lose a ball in almost their first time down the pitch, they get a weird own goal and then we push the game and at 1-0 we have chances and we have a couple big chances where maybe we can make it 1-1 but then when we give up the goal before half then it's a big hole that we've dug for ourselves 2-0. Obviously frustration and we're trying to push ourselves but we can't find a way in both boxes and to find a way to score more goals and be more dangerous.
We know you had one enforced change but the other three, why did you make those?
Yeah, with Coops he is so important that I don't want to risk pushing him too much on in three weeks. Three match weeks.
Patrick I thought was very good. I think that was a relatively easy decision to make because he was very dangerous and we're hopeful that he can be part of the solution of us finding more goals. Then we thought that Cry could be really effective and actually thought Cry played pretty well.
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When I look at the overall performances it's not like it was terrible, but we just let ourselves down by not making the defensive plays. We need to in our defensive box and not capitalising on moments that we create in the offensive part of the field.
Amidst the support for the team there was a lot of venom in the comments as well. The fans weren’t happy that you went down the tunnel at the end. Would you like to comment on that?
Yeah, in that moment obviously I'm disappointed and I'm trying to figure out what we're going to say to the team and how we're going to regroup and regenerate to get ready for Sunday. My focus is totally on Sunday.
It's nothing against the fans. Maybe I should go over there again next time no matter what, I'm sorry, I want to say sorry to them, but it had nothing to do with anything other than just now focusing on everything we need to try to do to get ready for Sunday.
Jesse, how much do you think performance will jeopardise your job?
I know I'm supported by the club. Right now I'm just trying to figure out how to help our team win games win matches. Frustration and disappointment and we make life difficult for ourselves, more difficult than we need to. So that's again, the focus is about stopping the bleeding on Sunday and getting ready for Sunday.
It's very hard to get the crowd back on side once they’ve turned. How patient do you think the board will be?
I think the fans have supported me really well. The board has supported me really well. Okay, so tonight, no one's happy. No one's happy. I'm not. I'm not. I'm probably just as frustrated and disappointed/angry as I've ever been in terms of football but in the end we have to manage the situation and figure out again, that when we step on the pitch on Sunday that we invest everything we have to make sure we try it we get that result.
Individual errors and missed chances are costing you…
I want the group to stay strong and together and their belief to be strong in what we're doing, which is it and then I think because they all want so badly to achieve for themselves and each other and the club and the fans that it creates a little bit of tension that I'm always trying to manage and direct their energies in the in the right way. So yeah, I think they're both important. That's what I'd say.
You can be competitive in the Premier League and games and still find yourself in a relegation fight. Is it too soon to say that's the reality?
Yeah, it's too soon. But I mean, when you look at the table, and we just keep slipping because we're not getting results, it's painful. It's the first time in my career that I've been in seven in a row not on the winning end. And so, right now, this is why your leadership is important and now having solutions. We have to put the right team on the pitch. We have to have the right tactics. We have to be ready to fight and we have to do everything we can. So that's the job right now.
You consistently talk about how supported you feel, it’s the most supported you’ve felt in your entire career. How shocked would you be if the tone changed from the board in the coming days and next week?
No, the board, we're totally unified. That's not an issue.
In terms of the league position, where would you have expected to be?
I don't know. I had a question even three weeks ago, like what are our goals for the season? The first goal is to stay in the league and then I said it was too early to tell exactly what the potential was. We believe in our group. We'd like our guys. We've had some really good moments as a team. And then we've had some moments that have been tough. It's a young group. We've got to continue to find out how to encourage them and support them so that we can get better and better.
Yeah, that's the job right now. So we'll have to evaluate how many experienced guys to get on the pitch more and there's a lot of little things to look at but, the guys have given everything. They've given everything and we're going to find a way, we're going to find a way
Where are they at mentally now?
Everybody's pissed off. We're all feeling like we're letting ourselves down in little ways, and we've got to find a way to stick together and, and now again, be ready to stop the bleeding and fight for each other on Sunday.
The team played so well without reward at the weekend but it didn't seem to have much confidence in the parts of the field where it mattered tonight?
I mean, again, for me, the performance isn't terrible. They have five shots, right? We limited them in a lot of ways. We just go down on their first chance down the pitch, and then we're even pushing hard at 1-0. if it gets to 1-1, it could be very different but again we're not able to convert. So we've got to figure that out. In second half I thought the guys push too hard.
Do you think confidence is an issue?
Of course it is, of course confidence is an issue. When you haven't won in a while yeah. But it's less about confidence and again more about desire and that the guys are trying everything and sometimes maybe too much. So we just got to guide our energies again in the right way so that we can do everything we can on Sunday to get the result.
Jesse, you’ve talked about leadership, boards do react to fans in the ground and how they react to their team. It wouldn't be the first time if the Leeds board reacted to the way that Leeds fans were. Are you really confident in your relationship and you don't feel that will change no matter what the fans say?
One of the things I saw even before I came is the way that the board supported Marcelo all the way for many, many years, right and everyone internally and I can only say that I felt that same support. I mean, from everyone, from everyone.
Every time when a team goes through a bad stretch of course the coach is the first one to question. The manager is then put to the questions of: Is he doing the right things? Is he making the right decisions? But we are together we are unified from the board perspective. From the player perspective. We are doing everything we can. The league is tough. We're not getting enough out of it right now and we've got to figure out some solutions.
Leeds United are a big club with big support and big expectations. I think the fans probably didn't expect to be in this position…
Yeah, we had a fight our way out of it last year, you know, and we had to make some I think we made some great additions. We're young, we have to develop more. The league is very difficult. We haven't gotten in many moments the results that we've deserved, and we thought we've played well. And now we're where we're at and we have to stay focused. We have to be ready to do everything we can. That's where we are when you look at a season sometimes there's pivotal moments and we're in one right now. We got to figure out a way on Sunday to do everything we can to get the result.
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