Brighton and Hove Albion manager Graham Potter has admitted that he has “huge respect” for Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch whilst labelling him as “a top coach” who has “had a fantastic career.”
The Whites saw their unbeaten start to the season ended by Potter’s Seagulls at the AMEX Stadium on Saturday afternoon, losing 1-0 with Pascal Gross’s second half strike proving the difference between the two sides.
Speaking to the media after the win, the Englishman was full of praise for the Leeds boss, saying: “Jesse's done a really good job and they're [Leeds] hard to play against. So we had to suffer a little bit but, overall I think deserved the win.
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“Leeds defend really well, they're a really well organised team. You can see from the game against Chelsea, fantastic. Their press, they're so hard to play against, not easy to play through.
“So I think it was important for us to be able to have courage to be able to play when we could and then use the width to try to stretch out their block laterally a little bit because it functions really well. So I thought Purvis [Estupinan] and Leo [Trossard] did it well, and Joel [Veltman] and Solly [March] did really well.
“Like I said, the only thing that missing from the first half was was a goal, but the performance level was really good against a really good team.
“Sometimes you make the mistake of looking at the game, you know, as Leeds’ pressure was ineffective, but actually there's always two teams on. Newcastle apparently didn't do very well when they played here as well but they were quite a good team.
“So it's about our performance and you saw that, how effective they were against Chelsea. Really strong and deservedly winning, I think. So I don't think it was necessarily about them being ineffective, I think it was us playing well and and causing them a problem and trying to bring our game to them.”
There had also been an incident down on the south coast where the American was booked for his protests by referee Michael Salisbury, with Marsch frustrated with the officiating on display.
When asked about the incident, Potter insisted he didn’t have an opinion, exclaiming: “I don't pay too much attention to what happens in the opposite technical area. That's for them to be how they think they should be and I have full respect for that.
“Everyone has to act how they want to act. And I've like I said, huge respect for Jesse March, he’s a top coach and has had a fantastic career. So the referee was fine. No real opinion on the referee again, I don't concern myself too much with him, I can't control his performance. I’m too worried about my team and how they’re playing.”
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