Jesse Marsch has explained why he argued his way to a yellow card at the Amex. The Leeds boss was booked for his ongoing complaints about decisions by Michael Salisbury. He was fortunate to avoid a second yellow when he sarcastically applauded that decision. Marsch’s regular complaints led to him being taunted by the home crowd.
Jesse Marsch said: “I thought my behaviour at that point deserved the yellow card. When you don’t believe you are getting performances out of the referee, I think you have two options. To sit there and take it or to escalate your behaviour to try to make a point, to see if you can affect the way decisions are being made. Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it works against you. I will never be a guy who just sits there and takes it. That’s not my style. I didn’t think it was a good performance (by the referee), but I don’t think ours was a good performance in the first half. This can happen. We had him against Chelsea as fourth official and I like his demeanour. I just think he didn’t have the best performance today. I know I let him know that maybe a couple too many times!”
Marsch said Leeds were “very lucky” to get to half-time on level terms. Asked how Albion made life tough,
Jesse Marsch said: “They very clearly man-mark. Then with the ball they almost just played long and gave us the ball because they wanted to bypass our pressing, which is part of the match plan that we wanted to build. When you play against man-marking, if you give them time to get into their schemes, then it’s always difficult unless you’re really sharp with combinations and movements in behind to break them down.”
