Jesse, congratulations! What an afternoon that was, how impressed are you?
Yeah. Obviously a really good performance, the best since I've been here. That is I think what's really nice to see, not just that we get the result, but I felt like we were the better team.
We created a little bit of a complex match plan that included if they did different things because they're very variable and so the more that we can have variability to then within against the ball and in all phases we can we can be more flexible and I think manipulate games a little bit more.
A good performance and individually, what you start to see is a bunch of players that understand their roles, and now I have a lot of confidence and belief in what we're doing.
Read more: Leeds United winners and losers as Jesse Marsch's Whites stun Chelsea at Elland Road
Thomas Tuchel said the win was nothing to do with Leeds’ style or press, what’s your reaction to that?
He can have his opinion. I think that our way of playing dictated the match almost entirely, limited them, created chances, made them make mistakes. If you if you saw their first games against Everton and Tottenham, if you give these quality players time, they can pass the ball all day and we didn't want to do that. We wanted to make them uncomfortable, we wanted to be aggressive but intelligent, and we wanted to push the game that way. And I think we did.
Rodrigo, four goals. He’s writing his Leeds history in front of our eyes at the moment. How is he been?
He’s been massive. He's been all in, he's been getting better every day, every week. He's committed at the highest level. He was the captain today, rightfully so. I think he's potentially in the form of his life and I think we have a bunch of guys right now Jack Harrison, Brenden Aaronson, you could go down the list, guys that are playing at a really, really high level right now.
So that's always a good sign when individuals are playing well when the group is clear with their roles and tactics. Were more flexible in the way we want to do things then you can start to feel we can have real potential.
Is he relishing the opportunity of being the main man he's got the armband on he’s stepping into the void?
I've enjoyed working with him since I've been here. He's been very positive. He's tried to do and implement the things that I've asked him. Sometimes not always, I know that sometimes he doesn't always want to do the things that he doesn't want to run the whole game and he doesn't want to have to commit himself but I think they're all finding that if they do it together that there's an infectiousness to playing this way. So the more we can do that, I think the more that we can create belief and understanding then again, the goal will be to continue to grow and get better.
Tyler Adams was outstanding today. Is that what we can expect to see from him?
Tyler is another guy who is playing the best football in his life, for me, and I know the potential that he has, because I've known him for so long.
My point was, I could see from the beginning when he came in and we had some tough conversations, we needed to almost pick up where we left off a couple of years ago and he's certainly doing that in a big way. And again, with all these guys, they're playing really well and there's so much more potential yet, I would say that about Tyler as well. I'm really happy with him, but we can continue to help him to get better and better.
Your backline, a first clean sheet of the season, what do you take from that?
It’s a goal of ours. I think we only had four last year in total, so we've talked a lot, we've created a team goals about clean sheets and giving up fewer goals. I think Pascal than in in this position that we're playing him, you say left-back, left centre-back, it's a little bit of a hybrid position, has adapted incredibly well.
You see Robin and Diego I think playing also as good as I think they've played in their careers, and then Rasmus Kristensen, all the new guys have come in and Marc Roca has been incredible. So we've made we've made good additions. The team has welcomed them and continues to adapt to what we want and it means that we should have hunger to continue to grow and get better and that we know that there's a lot of potential.
How did you feel at half-time? What did you say knowing that they would have a real go in the second half?
We were ready that if they played with built up with three or four that we were going to adapt. We talked about with the ball, what our match plan was and how to commit to the added to be brave with the ball, if we were at deeper at times and they were putting pressure on us to remain aggressive because we felt we felt that Southampton that we just not just that we defended deeper but we weren't aggressive enough and we invited pressure into our own box more. So I thought that part was good.
Then we said don't play backwards, don't play conservative, keep being on the front foot, keep playing, playing brave and they did that. It was really, really confident and strong performance.
To be that physical and come away without a single yellow must be pleasing as well?
I've been saying to them, last year they were learning the behaviours against the ball and how to win these duels and last year we were committing so many fouls and we were over-aggressive and we were getting ourselves in danger with fouls and cards and now even in training you can see that they're adapting to what the techniques are to actually when you go in and want to be won situations to win balls. So that takes a little bit of time.
In general, I think that we never get outworked or outrun right, that's a moniker of what we do here. But now if we can continue to add that we don't want to get outfought then we can be a good team. So yeah, it's coming together and we've got to keep going.
How much of a relief was it, stood on the touchline everyone was singing and feeling great, through all the challenges you’ve faced, you’ve gone out and beaten a top four side 3-0. Does it feel like a he relief?
I think it was important to play Cagliari in the match before the season, the last warm up match, because the new players needed to know what it means to play in front of these fans. They're special and they demand work, honesty and aggression. I think I fit here with the idea that I have about football and I think that our squad wants to continue to try to adapt and grow and it's because, like I said, it's becoming infectious within the team there's a big belief in the system.
Those are important moments, but I've sensed that that was coming together and I could sense before the game there was no fear. Last year before every game that was here there was fear and that should naturally when you're in a relegation fight,
Now I think they feel a lot of positive energy and they feel a lot of momentum and they have belief in each other and what we're doing so it means that we can go out and perform better and believe in things.
What did the hand signal mean, you kept showing a diamond hand signal?
That was to go to a diamond we went to a diamond against the ball. I'm building more hand signals with them. So I might start like you know, looking like, I don't know, you guys probably don't know baseball too much.
But I tried not to overcomplicate things but we can communicate because it's hard to communicate it in our stadium, it's so loud and most stadiums in this league. So we're trying as we build match plans to also build these messaging systems so that everybody knows if we change from a system to another if we change how we're going to press or how we're going to play that that that we can make a few hand signals and everybody's clear.
How satisfying is it that you won your way rather than having to adapt to the opposition?
We have principles, and then we try to use tactics to implement our principles to manipulate the game and opponents in a way that we want the game. We want the game to look the way that we want it to look. And again, against the top opponent against incredibly top opponent. We were able to do that today. That's, I think, rewarding and validating for everybody. It should continue to feed us the right kind of positive momentum to continue to go forward.
So you know, Brighton gets a win today and I know going down to Brighton won't be easy. They're really well coached and a really good team as well. We’ve got Barnsley and we’ll probably rotate a few guys and we need to see performances now from the entire squad that represent clarity and intelligence so that we can really now move everything along in the direction we want to go with every single player.
The Bundesliga has a reputation with the passion of its fans, how does this compare?
What I would say mostly about the Bundesliga is the fan culture is amazing because the identity of the fans and what they mean to the club is prevalent in every match and you know that, but, come on, this is amazing.
I don't know want to create competition, but I do know that there's a very clear identity to this club. There's a very clear history. And it's very important that we play in a way that our fans appreciate and want to see. In the end it's an entertainment business, and we have to try to entertain our fans with the kind of football that they demand. And we're trying to do that every day.
Do you think that today is the first time that the stadium has 100 per cent embraced you, embraced your team, since the change was made six months ago?
There's probably still a lot of doubts in me. No, it's okay. It's okay. It's normal. There's going to be people that like me, there's going to be people that hate me.
I just want the team to play with love and passion and belief. I've tried not to be pandering. I've tried to be appreciative of what the club is. I've tried to adapt to what the club is. I said after we lost that Aston Villa, that first match, I sat here and I said, ‘listen, I learned tonight, what it means to be here at Elland Road and I have to make sure that we build match plans and make sure that we include exactly what it means to play here’. We've done that with the players that we've added in the summer, but I think now it's coming together in a lot of different ways.
This league will keep you honest every week so we can't feel too good about ourselves. We should feel positive momentum and belief but we've got to keep pushing and keep being hungry.
It’s hard to come away from that today and feel as if people aren’t on board, it feels as though everyone was today?
I hope that because I know the fans are so intelligent. I hope they start to see a little bit more of like what the tactics are and what we're trying to accomplish.
Obviously, they learned a lot in the past with different things in the way different team that Marcelo liked to play or different people liked to play. I hope they're starting to gather more information as to what the tactics look like with him without the ball and yeah, I would say it's an intelligent crowd. It's a passionate crowd and winning always helps but performances I think are in some ways more important.
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