Leeds United thumped Cagliari 6-2 in their final pre-season friendly before the Premier League gets underway next weekend. Rodrigo scored a hat-trick, while Patrick Bamford bagged two and Robin Koch also scored.
Here's what Jesse Marsch had to say after the game.
Jesse, how much do you take out of that big victory tonight?
I think it was a good performance. In the first half we were creating a lot and not really capitalising on some situations and in the second half it was good to add up some more goals and give our team confidence. When they scored the two goals we had a little bit of a lapse and to be honest, I was trying to keep track of Robin (Koch) because it looked like he tweaked his knee and I was a little bit worried he was injured and I could have made a couple of adjustments to help them. Once we had a timeout we rearranged a couple of things so they couldn’t catch us on the counter and I’m thankful that Robin’s OK.
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What I said to the team afterwards is that when you have good performances it’s not time to relax, it should feed us and give us hunger to keep improving and know that there’s some positive reinforcement that we’re moving in the right direction. In general I would say that performance showed we’re moving in the right direction.
Do you feel there’s a cohesion about your side now?
In general the players that were here are grasping concepts more and more and we’ve been able to work in an environment that’s not just about stress. The new players have added to what we’re trying to do. I think the best thing I felt after Australia is I could see all the new players have integrated really well and fit in well within the team not just from a football perspective but from a mentality of who we want to be perspective.
For me, there’s so much work to do and we’re just scratching the surface of what I want us to become but again, the positive performance can give us reinforcement.
You gave 90 minutes to all of the starting XI tonight and players played yesterday (behind closed doors), was that deliberate?
Yes. The full XI yesterday played 90 minutes and the full XI today played 90 minutes and we feel like most of them have come out of it with little things but no injuries. We have 22 players that I think are fit and ready to push for the season to start. Some of them yesterday are probably not going to be involved, they are more under-18s and stuff, but in general, we’re physically good, we’re clear with our playing model and we’re moving forward.
What about Sinisterra and Firpo, what’s the situation with them?
So Liam (Cooper) will hopefully be on the pitch tomorrow, Sinisterra is probably a week from being on the pitch and Firpo is probably two weeks from being on the pitch. I think Adam (Forshaw) is a week from being on the pitch. Luke (Ayling) is probably two weeks away from being on the pitch. We’re not at full strength but in two or three weeks we will be close to that with the exception being Stuart Dallas.
Are you expecting any movement on transfers?
Andrea (Radrizzani) is here this week and we’ll have a lot of good discussions. With the five guys we’ve brought in we were totally clear that these five guys were who we wanted and we went out and got them. I’m very thankful to Victor and Andrea for getting those done and they did a good job early to secure those players integrated into our team. It’s made us strong for where we are right now. We have to be really clever about how to make the next additions to make sure that as good a job as we’ve done with the five, and you could say six with Darko (Gyabi) as well, with two or three more that we are as confident as those guys.
Things change really quickly. Is De Ketelaere completely out now?
I think he is, I think De Ketelaere is confirmed to go to Milan, from what I’m hearing, but nothing has been announced so we have treated it for two or three weeks like he’s not coming.
It sounds like nothing is close, so are you happy with the five going into the season?
No, we want to make some more additions and we have targets. We wanted last week to really evaluate things and then to be prudent on our future decisions. Hopefully this week we’ll make some final decisions and final moves.
You had Ian Poveda, Helder Costa and Mateusz Klich on the bench, what’s the situation with them?
I think they’ve done a really good job with the uncertainty of the situation, working hard in pre-season and being part of the group. I don’t know we’ll see how that moves forward.
So Mateusz is certainly a candidate for leaving this month?
I don’t know yet. I really like Mateusz and his mentality has been great. He understandably really wants to go to the World Cup and all of our guys are trying to figure out how it all fits. It’s an important four or five months for a lot of players. I like having Mateusz here, he’s a great guy and he’s put a lot into this, we’ll see what happens.
Rene and Michael have been announced since you got back from Australia, can you tell us about them?
Rene is a football person that I’ve admired for years. We’ve known each other but anyone who has worked with him or been close to him has the utmost respect for his intelligence, attention to detail and work ethic. We had a lot of good discussions and it took a bit of time for him to make the final decision to come. As soon as I knew he parted with Dortmund I made a call to try to see if that could be a possibility and in the end, the more we talked the more we felt that the symmetry of us working together could be very good. I think he’s going to be a big addition and I’m thankful to have him here.
With Michael, they’ve both had a good week where they’ve both shown a lot of eagerness and excitement to be here. Michael is really excited with everything about our club and how we’re trying to play. He’s clearly bringing good experience and expertise but also a desire to learn and grow and fit into the culture here. We’re really excited about both.
Rodrigo seems as essential to your team as ever?
Listen, he’s had a good pre-season and he and I have a good relationship and I think the way we work and talk and the relationship we have has been fun for me. It’s not always easy pushing him and he’s very receptive to positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and honesty, the more you give him the more he wants and I like guys like that. It’s really pleasing to see him play so well, I’m really happy for him and I think he’s growing into the team.
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