Six goals from Leeds United in their final tune-up before Wolverhampton Wanderers turned up the heat, but a dressing-room warning was still needed from Jesse Marsch. The Whites had five minutes of madness during which Cagliari scored twice with all too familiar goals on the break and the head coach had words post-match.
Marsch is aware opposition counter-attacks are a problem that have needed remedying this summer, but on Sunday his attention during those concessions was with Robin Koch. The Germany international had needed treatment and was limping, which left the team a little exposed for the goals.
“It was a good performance,” said Marsch. “In the first half, we were creating a lot and not really capitalising on some situations and in the second half, it was good to add up some more goals and give our team confidence.
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“When they scored the two goals we had a little bit of a lapse and, to be honest, I was trying to keep track of Robin because it looked like he tweaked his knee. I was a little bit worried he was injured and I could have made a couple of adjustments to help them.”
While six goals was a huge confidence booster ahead of the new campaign, with an array of United attackers purring in the final third, Marsch is a perfectionist. The two goals conceded, and the manner of them, has to be wake-up call for the players, he stressed in the dressing room.
“Once we had a timeout we rearranged a couple of things so they couldn’t catch us on the counter and I’m thankful that Robin’s okay,” he said. “What I said to the team afterwards is ‘when you have good performances it’s not time to relax, it should feed us and give us hunger to keep improving and know there’s some positive reinforcement we’re moving in the right direction.’ In general, I would say that performance showed we’re moving in the right direction.”
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