Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch has said he will not sleep after his team suffered back-to-back defeats since he took charge at Elland Road.
Leeds fell to a disappointing 3-0 loss at home to Aston Villa on Thursday which followed a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Leicester City in Marsch’s first game at the club last week.
The result leaves Leeds in 16th position in the league table but only two points above the relegation zone, while 18th-placed Burnley have two games in hand.
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Speaking in his postmatch news conference, the American coach said he anticipates a sleepless night in order to steer the club away from relegation.
“The one thing that I can promise you is that I’m not afraid of the of the moment and the situation,” Marsch said. “In some ways, I like having my back against the wall. Right? Because I think that this business is not about how good you are when it’s good. It’s about how good you are when it’s really tough.
“And clearly, we have a situation that is really tough. So I’m not going to sleep a lot tonight. I can promise you that. But I’m going to think carefully and I’m going to make sure that I regroup and help the team regroup in every way. So that Sunday, we put together a much better performance and one that we think represents more who we are.
“This is what I’m here to do in a very difficult moment, help the club and help the players understand what we need to do to survive this situation. I want to thrive. I want our team and our players to thrive in this situation.”
Marsch replaced Marcelo Bielsa as the new coach last week but his side have failed to score a single goal in his first two matches and conceded four in the process.
Leeds welcome fellow Premier League strugglers Norwich City to Elland Road on Sunday and Marsch said he wants his players need to learn from the Villa result and not fear playing in front of their home support.
“I underestimated the stress of the moment,” he added. “From the players’ perspective, we’ve had a very good week, good 10 days together. I’ve tried to create clarity for the group as to how we want to play and the behaviours that we want and the tactics to create clarity with that but it was clear from the beginning that we lacked confidence and aggression in the match.
“I’ve heard a lot about the Elland Road crowd tonight and I thought it was fantastic from the beginning, really. But I also could see that the players, they want to do well so badly for each other and for the club and for the fans that it brings almost more pressure and stress onto their shoulders.
“So, from the beginning I said we have to stay calm, and we have to be clear, and I can see right now that that’s a message that we have to stay strong with. And that you know when we step on the field that we need to know that the fear will ensure failure, right? It won’t protect us from failure. We have to be fearless. We have to attack matches and we have to go after opponents. That is the biggest lesson for me from what happened tonight.”