Jesse Marsch has revealed that he set out to prevent Newcastle United from executing any 'special plays' after the Leeds boss was struck by the 'size' of the Magpies' players at set-pieces.
Newcastle have made real strides from set-plays in the last 12 months and some of the hosts' best openings in the goalless draw against Leeds came from corners and free-kicks despite the visitors' best efforts to prevent Eddie Howe's side using short routines. Kieran Trippier's delivery caused Leeds problems in the New Year's Eve clash and Fabian Schar (twice), Chris Wood, Dan Burn and Sven Botman were among those who had decent chances from those balls into the box.
Newcastle ultimately won nine corners and many more free-kicks on an afternoon where Leeds made a whopping 19 fouls at St James' Park as the visitors disrupted the black-and-whites' rhythm. Although Marsch felt Newcastle got a 'few cheap fouls' from referee Simon Hooper, who the Leeds boss nonetheless thought had a 'good match', the American was pleased with how his side coped with the Magpies' giants in the 0-0 stalemate.
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"Just look at the size of some of their players," he told reporters. "We started the game on defensive corner kicks with three players up high because we wanted to try to force them to adjust to us and not just be able to try some special plays, to use their big players, and that was effective.
"Trippier puts in some really good balls, but we defended really well together and we've been working on our defensive set-pieces. There weren't a crazy amount of big saves that Illan [Meslier] had to make or worrying moments for the group."
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