Marsch starts on injuries…
Well the first thing is a reminder that I'm not speaking about transfers so don’t even bother. The second is injuries, Patrick is back training and he’s the squad so that's really good news. Luis is getting closer and closer but not quite ready and then Stuart and Archie. The only other update is that Cree Summerville is out for a month probably.
The ankle injury and tackle he sustained in the Cardiff match is a little bit of a talking point for me because I think between Cree and Willy specifically that opponents have tried to bully them, that they have a hard time containing them specifically when they're on the move or dribble and frankly, I don't think that the referees have protected those two players well enough.
So they’re susceptible to injury and to hard tackles and I would like to see the referees protect attacking players more. So we're a little disappointed that Cree will be out. He's hopeful that it will be quicker than a month but that's what the prognosis is right now.
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You have attacking options but will you have decisions to make in terms of streamlining those options and letting one or two go out?
Again, I don't want to talk specifically about incoming or outgoing transfers, but that's what we're talking about. Squad building is always trying to figure out how to get every player the minutes that he needs to develop and then the discussion is he better here with the 21s, is he better here with the first team, is he better on the loan? Those are always open discussions and we try to be really honest and open with our players and then help them to make decisions that are best for their career.
It's been very stop start in terms of the Premier League the last few months with the World Cup and FA Cup last week, how important now is this phase of the season in terms of putting some distance between Leeds and the bottom three?
Yeah, in general, I think we wanted a good start. Because we want to just be able to steadily get better and grow. That's one of the things that has been the most difficult, to really jumpstart development as a group. I think there's a lot of individuals that have grown a lot throughout the process, but as a group, it still hasn't come together the way that I would like. The lack of consistency from match to match and in match, what the first half of the second half can look like or vice versa.
It means that we're not able to really push this the way that I would want so that we don't have to talk about it, but that's where we are and it's my job to figure out how to help people improve in that way. That's what I'm constantly trying to do is help create more and more clarity and understanding for what roles are and how to execute on match day. So yeah, that's ultimately what will be the goal again from below and to do it in a way where we can also have the results.
I know you don't want to talk about transfers, the new striker coming in and all that sort of thing. At the same time, allowing players to go out when injuries are clearly mounting, is that wise?
Well, it depends on every situation. We could talk about Klichy, there was lots of discussions along the way and what was best for him what was best for us. Even when he's here how we use them and was he happ, could he understand and commit to that or not? Victor, Angus, Andrea, all of us, talk a lot about what's best for us in terms of our process of moving along and we've committed to a lot of new young players from outside the league because we felt like those were some of the players that would fit best for what we're trying to develop here. So yeah, there's always these little discussions going on and overall I feel like we like our squad.
What about players like Charlie Cresswell, what future do they have?
Yeah, I mean, I really liked Charlie. I think his mentality is amazing. We could go down the list, Lewis Bate, Dan James, we can talk about all of them right and every situation is a little bit different and all the players that we have in under our umbrella in general we keep them in our umbrella because we like them and we think they have potential for the future. But then situations arise that there's financial pressures, there's needs from players and discussions with agents and interest from other teams. And then you always just have to manage things internally in the way that you think is best.
Is it fair to say that you might have to let somebody go on loan or otherwise so you can facilitate strengthening?
No, I think it's more just again, evaluating at all moments what's best for the situation.
When you think about the goals that you’ve conceded this season, have you spotted themes, perhaps the space at the back post behind the full-back, has it frustrated you that that's cropped up again?
Well, I don't know that it has, really. The goals against Cardiff are getting beat behind our centre backs, which hasn't happened too much this year. And then, goals against West Ham were also a little bit different kinds of goals. So one of the things about switching to the flexible 4-3-3 is to help protect ourselves a little bit more on the back post because we were getting beat there and clearly opponents were identifying that. That's a tactic here and even more so than other places I've been, that chip across to the back post and so obviously then we're trying to address that more to deal with that.
What's the feeling about injuries? How much of a frustration have they been because it couldn’t be said that the injury list has been light this season?
Yeah, I mean, other than some of the long-term ones and how we choose to look at it is non-contact versus contact. So the reason I bring up Cree is because obviously you don't want your attacker to be getting contact injuries. The non-contact injuries I think for the most part have been pretty good.
The balance for me is we have a lot of discussions here with our physical team, I have my methods and then there's methods that were done in the past and then there's methods that are core to the different people and the experiences that they have and how to blend them together to get a team that can perform at its absolute highest level physically but balance that with freshness and lack of injuries is a big challenge.
Obviously, the younger the team you have, the better chance you have to muscle injuries. But for the most part, I think we're on the lower end this season of that and more of the injuries are contact type injuries. Then you have some of the players that that have been here for a while that are a little bit older that are struggling with chronic issues.
So Adam Forshaw trying to keep him as fit and healthy and get that balance right, Patrick Bamford even sometimes Coops how we do that how we get that part, right. Those are still challenges and the balance of how hard we push them, how many days off we give them, what kind of procedures we provide them so that they have the best chance to be at 100% or as close as possible.
Have you contacted referees about challenges?
I have tried to eliminate most discussions about the referees or with the referees that's either in the media or behind closed doors just because I haven't found it to be very useful. So in the end, I can only go with the different leagues I've been at, internally there's been discussion within the referee ranks about protecting attackers. I think the biggest thing that they've got here in England that makes it different than a lot of leagues is the automatic three game ban on straight reds, I think is a good thing. But then I think there's also just managing it in the match to make sure that the players that most fans come to see have the best chance of being on the pitch.
There’s been concerns raised about the fans’ chants towards him. Do you share those concerns and would you like the fans to potential change the words of the song?
I think the point would be that we always want to be respectful. I think in our sport, it's so important to maintain high levels of respect and I know, within our group, we have that at the highest level. I think our fans are great. They show passion, they want the team to be successful, they can be hard on the team sometimes and hard on me about what we're doing and we understand that. I think that I love how much they love Willy, I will be walking around my house chanting or like whistling the tune in my head sometimes but just, is there a way to modify it to be as passionate but be more respectful that's what I would say.
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