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William Jackson

Every word Rene Maric said on Leeds United's defeat, injuries, Illan Meslier and Brenden Aaronson

Obviously a disappointing result in preparation for next week, but can I start with the team that didn't play and the players that weren't involved, Rodrigo, Cooper, Harrison, Adams, are there new injuries there or is it merely a case of resting them?

It's very individual obviously, we have some illness going around so you'll have to check who is coming back into training. Rodrigo had tightness and again, if it's a friendly you don't risk these things. We think that most of them will be ready for Man City but we're not 100% sure, but, it's looking good. Illness is day by day, you know.

In terms of the 10 minute spell in the second half, where Monaco obviously got those goals which decided the game, what was your reading of the situation about why they were able to get through one after another?

I mean, if you look at the first half how we started the game, you could really see that they were on it from the beginning. I think we just missed that in the second half and they didn’t and in the end it's just a matter of how you move how you react. At such a high level, if you do the split second earlier and did it a little bit faster than the space that they get, they don't get.

Read more: Leeds United's Robin Koch and Brenden Aaronson shine in Monaco defeat but absentees a concern

I think that's what we missed at the start of the second half and we have to do better in these things because it's part of the things that we took from the first part of the season that you want to improve in, these fast starts in each half and also defending a lead by staying proactive, staying aggressive by doing these things like we can do them and often do.

I know you’re not the goalkeeping coach Rene but what's the fight going on between Robles and Klaesson in terms of starting against Man City, obviously Kristoffer started tonight, Joel has had a couple of starts?

I mean, we’re just very happy in general with the goalkeeper situation because it's not usual to have two guys who can easily be a number two with potential to be very good goalkeepers in different ways. To have them both together it's just a competition and we're trying to give everyone minutes.

So Kris was also a bit ill which is why Joel got more minutes at the start of pre-season and at the end we gave these minutes to Kris because we think both deserve it because both are training very well and both are very good goalkeepers.

We know Tyler is missing for Man City. So there's a lot more attention on Adam playing with Marc in the middle. What do you make of their chemistry in the middle as a pair?

I mean, Marc and Tyler played a lot of time together in the first part of the season. So obviously it's a little bit different. We're still trying some details out but in general, I thought you could see in pre-season how the chemistry was improving and today I thought especially in the first half it was very, very good. Adam had a very good game so we're happy with that and we hope that we can continue to build upon their relationship and how they move together, especially moving towards the Man City game but also the second part of the season where we need every player in the best possible form.

Are you able to say how Illan is doing, can we assume he won’t be fit for the Man City game?

It's similar to the other guys that I said it's a day to day basis. I believe he'll be fit, yes.

You had three in midfield today. Are we likely to see more of that?

Yeah, we'll just be looking at things. How we can combine the players that we have in different situations, how we can adapt if the opponent is more flexible, if they change things. We think that having three midfielders and varying them, playing more on the wing or more in the centre. So one of them moving out wide against the ball, with the ball, it’s just the things that you're trying on in pre-season because you now have the time to adapt the second or third formation and that's part of the reason why we're doing it.

We think with our squad and this what teams in general, not just Man City, but especially what other teams are doing in the league, we just want to be flexible and be adaptable. I think that's one way to go also just looking at the whole second part of the season.

Brenden Aaronson looked very good. He probably didn’t get as many minutes as he wanted in the World Cup, but are you pleased with the way he has come back?

I mean, he's a great guy. He's training always very, very high intensity. His numbers in the games, they're mostly public, the physical output he has in the games is the same in training. So he adapted very quickly again, after not playing that much in the World Cup and then having off for a few days. And we’re very happy with the progress he's making towards the return of the Premier League.

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