Leeds United defender Robin Koch has admitted that the Whites’ first-half display against Brighton “was not our best” and that they were “lucky” to be level at half-time as the Yorkshire outfit were beaten by the Seagulls 1-0 at the AMEX Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Although the visitors improved after a lacklustre 45 minutes, it was actually in the second half when the sole goal of the match was scored as Pascal Gross put the visitors ahead in the 66th minute.
“I think first half was not our best half and we were a bit lucky that we got into half-time with a draw,” Koch told LUTV. “Then I think in the second half we played much better. We had more chances from playing out [from the back].
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“We knew that it was a completely different game. Brighton is doing a good job with man v man so it’s difficult to get out there. Then we focused a bit more on longer balls and second balls and in the first half I think it was not our best game but second half we were much better but we missed to score.”
The German defender also admitted that manager Jesse Marsch had words to say during the interval after a poor first 45 minutes. “He said exactly what we had to,” Koch explained. “He showed us how we can get out with playing out and I think we did what he said at half-time in the second half.
“Like I said before, we were playing good, we were creating chances and missed our chance and then you get a goal on the other end. Bad timing for us.”
However, the Whites have the opportunity to return to winning ways quickly with a home match against winless Everton on Tuesday evening next up in the schedule, and Koch is adamant that playing soon after a defeat is a positive.
The centre-back admitted: “I think for us as a team it’s good where we want to play games and yeah, next game is two or three days away so it’s good. So we have to put this game away, maybe we have a little bit of video and see what we have to do better, what we did good and then we go onto the next game.”
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