Leeds United had to survive a late onslaught to maintain their unbeaten run and keep a five point gap to the bottom three. The Whites had just two shots on target and 12 touches in the opposition box but outran the hosts in a tight affair.
Kalvin Phillips managed the full 90 minutes at Selhurst Park and he admitted that the Whites could have played better but was happy to pick an important point in the fight against relegation. Leeds know that their fate remains in their own hands but have a tough run of games on the horizon.
The 0-0 draw with Palace means Leeds are now five games unbeaten and have kept two consecutive clean sheets on the road. Marsch himself agreed that the performance could have been better but was pleased to have picked up a point.
READ MORE: Jesse Marsch lifts the lid on Leeds United dressing room mood and big problem at Crystal Palace
Here's everything Jesse Marsch had to say on the performance:
In terms of the result and performance, what are your thoughts tonight?
JM: "Result is big. Every point is important but performance, not our best but defensively very stable. Second clean sheet in a row, five games unbeaten, Kalvin [Phillips] playing 90 minutes, getting some young players some minutes, I think we just have to take the positives away.
"It was not so easy with 16 days to keep game fitness and game sharpness and that bit showed a little bit. The mentality of the group and the ability of the team to fight for every inch on the pitch, I think really helped us earn the point tonight."
Was the lack of quality in possession disappointing?
JM: "Yeah. There were two factors for me. In the build-up phase, our spacing and our movement, timing and connections weren't good. Then a lot of times when we won the ball we gave it back in the first-half.
"We settled down more in the second-half and I thought we were able to piece the game together a little bit better, but even that being said, if you lose the ball against a team that's good in transition it means it can be very dangerous. It wasn't an easy task.
"Again, at this place against a team that can be very explosive, to hold a clean sheet, is very important for us right now."
Was the intent to go long?
JM: "We talked about going long to set the tone of the game but then we wanted to play out. To be fair, Illan [Meslier] was brave in a lot of moments and got our centre-backs into the game. We tried to create some movements to unbalance the opponent but in the end it wasn't sharp enough or clean enough in some of our build up phases to get us in to overload situations in the attacking third.
"That led to us not creating and being dangerous enough. We're trying to build that in more and more and the clarity of how the little connections work, at times, it can look good but not enough in terms of the spacing, the choices of the pass, the timing of when to play and when to move but we'll keep working on that."
How big is a point tonight?
JM: "I think it's a really big point. It gets us closer and closer towards our ultimate goal and again, if you'd say to me five games ago 'In the next five games you'd picked up 11 points,' I would have signed on the bottom line. We still have a lot of things to work on and I take it one game at a time. Now the best team in the world, for me, coms to Elland Road [Manchester City].
"I know this season already, one of my teams has played against Man City and I know what a challenge that game is, I know how difficult it is to limit their best players from making good plays and their movement and ideas of what to do with the ball. We will have to be incredibly effective and clear of how we want to play against the ball, we will have to find ways to control the game with the ball a little bit more and in transition moments be more dangerous and effective. Still on set pieces find a way to be more aggressive."
Any injury to Klich?
JM: "No, I just felt like we needed more of a defensive presence in there and an ability to help press. That for me was clear that it was going to be Robin [Koch] but while I've been here Klichy has played really well. We're still going to need him down the stretch."
What's the players views?
JM: "Everyone is disappointed. They want to play better and still feel it's a game we can get three points out of if we're a little bit better. We knew that after 16 days off this wasn't going to be easy, coming to this place was never going to be easy. For me still, finding a way to earn a point again is big for us right now."
What was the game plan to hurt Palace and why do you think it didn't quite work?
JM: "We thought that we could win more balls in the middle of the field. I thought, from playing against Patrick's teams before, that he tries a bit of a connection to try and find the eight on the other side of the pitch and when they were going to play into some of these spaces, we were going to close them down and win balls and find a way to be better on transition.
"Then we thought that we were going to be able to overplay them a bit better and find some of our players in the space in front of their backline and then lead us into more options and chances in the last third. We expected them to play a little bit differently with different personnel. We made some adjustments right before the game.
"In some moments we executed well against the ball well and in other moments we should have done better with the ball. If you just look at how many really big chances they had it wasn't a ton. We were still pretty stable.
"Set pieces were very clear now and stable and that's the best thing you can say now in a relegation fight, is how do we limit the opponent and make it difficult for them to get goals. In four months we hadn't had a clean sheet, now we've had two in a row. If we can continue to do that, against good opponents, then we believe in our ability up the field to still find goals."
What was he saying to Klich in the first half?
JM: "Some of his ideas and movement with and without the ball. Just trying to position himself a little bit better and create options."
How comfortable do you feel with the team as it stands?
"Stable defensively. That's what I would say more than anything. More work to do with the ball and creating chances.
"For me, I feel that any time you have an away match in this league, unless you're the giants it's not as easy to get control of the match so you have to find ways to defend. You have to find way to be good on the count, make it difficult on the opponent and to still have a little bit more creativity and ideas on how to connect to get to the final third, then create big chances. I'm very pleased with this point."
How is Raphinha, he looked to be injured?
JM: He was fine.
What's the next stage in the team's development?
JM: "I think having Kalvin [Phillips] back can help us. Having his first game back and playing in the new system from the start, he'll understand his role and movements and ideas more and more. I think he can be a big part in our solutions in the build up phase that can lead us and get our attacking players into more dangerous spots.
"What I will be focussing on is the positives. We certainly have more work to do and there's some moments when we're man marking phases and trying to break out of that more and more. We're asking the team to be more compact and that's one of the reason's we're not giving up so many chances and so many goals.
"It's because we're not spread out all over the pitch and allowing the opponent to win balls and attack us straight down the middle. We're more compact so that when we play we can create options, but when we lose it we can create some pressure."
Is it hard to break the man-marking habit?
JM: "It's getting better and better for me every game. It's normal that it's going to take a little bit of time.
Two big saves from Meslier, what can he go on and achieve?
JM: "I said this weeks ago, for me he's the best young goalkeeper that I've worked with. It's always hard to make big statements like that [best in world football] but you know when you look at the fact he plays for France Under-21's and he's in the mix for the national team moving forward, how good France is on the international stage, you can say that his talent is big. I'm just trying to encourage him to be strong, confident and a good decision maker.
"I'm not a goalkeeping coach, I've said before I know things about goalkeepers, the technique and tactical position for every moment isn't my strength, but I do know when a keeper has a presence in the game and makes the right kind of decisions, dictates the way the game is played and for the most part I think he did that tonight. He's done well."
