Jesse Marsch admits Leeds United side were not “dangerous” enough after Patrick Vieira made “adjustments” to his Crystal Palace side to secure a 2-1 win at Selhurst Park. Palace fell behind after just ten minutes Pascal Struijk pounced on the rebound from a Brenden Aaronson shot. But the home side were back on level terms shortly after when Odsonne Edouard headed in Michael Olise’s free-kick.
Jesse Marsch said: “Yeah, the disappointment in the dressing room after the match is because of that. I think the performance in the first half we should have been able to come in with a lead and maybe even two goals. If you look at a series of matches where there’s been games where we’re in control of the match for major portions, we’re not scoring enough goals. So we have to find a way to continue to be effective in the last third and when we’re on top of matches to capitalise. That part left us at half-time, even though I was trying to feed the group to say, ‘Come on, keep playing like this, it’s a really good performance, stay on top of the game, and we’re going to find a win’. In the end they [Palace] made some adjustments, they started chipping balls in behind our midfield line and then they were able to move out of our pressing at moments and then the game was a little bit more in the balance. Even the second half, I don’t think was a bad performance, we’re just not able to be dangerous. The way they started the game, they started better with intensity. Difficult for us to build from the back. Poor decisions. Really difficult for ourselves. Second half we went more direct, managed to win more second balls. More momentum, they dropped back a little to give us more space.”
Palace have managed to edge further away from the relegation zone to 15th with a three-point cushion now separating them from the bottom three. Next up, on Saturday (October 15), the Eagles head on the road to face a Leicester City side who are currently five points adrift in 19th.
