Jesse Marsch says Leeds United 'are not fully committing tactically and behaviourly to what we want to achieve'

Jesse Marsch will spend Leeds United's mid-season break trying to hammer home the tactical disciplines he feels his players are not fully buying into.

Their final two games before the Premier League went on hold for the World Cup were a joy for neutrals – 4-3s, one won, one lost after comebacks – but less so for coaches like Marsch who like to have control of games.

Leeds had it for much of Saturday's second half at Tottenham Hotspur once Ben Davies made it 2-2. Rodrigo scored his second goal to put Leeds ahead for a third time with 16 minutes to play but sloppy defending let Rodrigo Bentancur score twice.

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"We have to stay on top of the discipline and the behaviours and continue to reiterate what we need so we don't do it 90 per cent of the time, we do it 100 per cent of the time," said Marsch.

FRUSTRATIONS: Leeds United coach Jesse MarschFRUSTRATIONS: Leeds United coach Jesse Marsch
FRUSTRATIONS: Leeds United coach Jesse Marsch

"We've got better. It's a reason why we've been able to flip the script a little bit on our season but we just makes mistakes we shouldn't be making.

"We're not fully committing tactically and behaviourly to what we want to achieve.

"The game mimics the season, there's moments where we look really good and moments where we look really vulnerable."

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Bentancur’s goals came quickly after Luke Ayling came on as a fifth defender.

"Tactically we were on top of things at 2-2," said Marsch.

"By (switching to) 5-4-1 we can double down on the wing and still have numbers in the box.

"We give up too many moments where we don't defend the wing aggressively enough and give the opponent too much space, then don't defend the box well enough."

Only having Rasmus Kristensen, Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson in Qatar should make working on those aspects before the next game, against Manchester City on December 28, easier.

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