Marsch stresses respect for Bielsa despite 'careless' remarks

Jesse Marsch insists he has "major respect" for Marcelo Bielsa after comments the American made in a recent radio interview. Bielsa was controversially sacked by Leeds at the end of February after a poor run of results and replaced by Marsch, who was tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League. During an interview on talkSPORT last week, Marsch said Leeds' players had been over-trained under Bielsa and that had led to a debilitating injury list which has undermined their season.

Some Leeds fans claimed those comments were disrespectful of Bielsa and Marsch wanted to set the record straight at a media conference before Monday's Premier League game at Crystal Palace. Unprompted, Marsch said: "I haven't spoken at all since the comments I made on talkSPORT about overtraining and Marcelo and listen, I want to say this was not intentional to attack Marcelo in any way. "It was a little bit careless and I can see how it was interpreted in some ways.

"But it was more about the state of the player pool and what I had observed in trying to take the team forward. "I think you would be hard-pressed to find an incoming coach that has spoken more positively about the person he replaced (than) the way I have spoken about Marcelo. It's because I have major respect for him.