Leeds United take a valuable point against Brentford - but could they have had more with a bit of bravery?

A 0-0 against perennially under-estimated Brentford, even at home, is not to be sniffed at.

But Marsch likes to ask his players to be "braver" on the field and maybe had he followed his own advice, things could have been better still.

He talked before the game about the impact his substitutes needed to have but when the chance came to use them, he dithered.

The Leeds coach likes to take results out of the equation when assessing performances. Wouldn't we all when our team is in relegation trouble?

But the Whites really need to start showing some pointy elbows when opportunities present themselves in the clutter at the wrong end of the table.

Leeds needed to build on the momentum of their midweek victory over Cardiff City because their only league wins since August came in consecutive pre-World Cup weekends.

Instead, Marsch was talking about positives, not points, at full-time.

"When I look all of our men in the eye in the dressing room, they know it's coming together," he said.

Could somebody please tell the league table?

As Leeds penned Brentford in during the second half and Elland Road roared its encouragement, the killer blow was just not landing.

It was the classic coach's dilemma: do you risk messing up something working pretty well to find the oomph to make it that bit better?

After 70 minutes he relented, radically deciding to have someone playing on their right wing, and introduced Luis Sinisterra.

In the 79th minute he not unreasonably opted for someone in Patrick Bamford with three goals in his last two appearances over the possibility of handing a debut to Georginio Rutter, who had spent a lot of the afternoon under a blanket.

"We thought about it," said Marsch, just as Thomas Frank admitted he looked at some of his substitute attackers and chose to stick.

In the end, the changes Marsch made were too little too late. Rutter and Joe Gelhardt went unused, Brentford wriggled off the hook.

All Sinisterra could really manage was a touch heavy enough shortly after coming on to make the whole ground groan. Bamford buzzed about without much impact.

Willy Gnonto was yet again dynamic up front but too few of those around him were quite at the level required and for most of the one-way second half the home supporters were waiting for rather than expecting a breakthrough.

"Come on Leeds, come on, we can win it!" implored one fan in the Main Stand as they stood over a stoppage-time free-kick but when the ball ended up in David Raya's hands, hundreds did not wait for the full-time whistle to head for the exit.

At least in the first half when the game was more open, centre-backs Max Wober and Robin Koch stood up the challenge.

Much of it was bitty and niggly, with a succession of soft free-kicks generously awarded to both sides by Peter Bankes.

Leeds got their first really good sight of goal from one, Brenden Aaronson falling just outside the area less than a minute after his backheel to no one prompted groans.

Wober's curling free-kick dipped too late but did nothing to spoil a good impression. Twice early on he got his shorts muddy sliding into tackles and another left a bit on Bryan Mbeumo without threatening a free-kick. It seemed to inspire his centre-back partner, Robin Koch.

The German managed to set up and deny a Mathias Jensen shot with consecutive headers midway through the first half and later cut out Rico Henry's pass.

When Ivan Toney touched a curling cross on, the left wing-back was the man over but seemed to hesitate at the enormity of it all, neither smashing the ball in nor picking out Toney. Koch stepped in.

Henry had earlier mishit a cross onto the crossbar with Illan Meslier nowhere to be seen.

At the other end Aaronson had a shot blocked and Raya made a sprawling save from a Rodrigo shot which was actually going just wide.

The second half was pretty much all Leeds from the lovely sweeping move inside the first minute that saw Pascal Struijk just run out of road to put in a decent cross.

Aaronson curled a harmless shot and Wober's drive hit former Barnsley centre-back Ethan Pinnock. Reyna's save from Rodrigo in the 57th minute nearly presented Gnonto with a chance. Nearly, but not quite.

When Rodrigo played Gnonto in, Raya turned his shot around the post.

It just felt like Leeds needed that little extra bit extra but at least there was no sucker punch.

Mads Roerslev ought to have provided it when the ball fell to him in the 84th minute but his shot was lamentably weak.

It was good from Leeds, but good enough? Marsch thought so.

Leeds United: Meslier; Ayling, Koch, Wober, Struijk; Roca (Greenwood 88), Adams; Aaronson (Sinisterra 67), Harrison, Gnonto; Rodrigo (Bamford 79). Unused substitutes: Robles, Firpo, Llorente, Kristensen, Rutter, Gelhardt.

Brentford: Raya; Ajer, Pinnock, Mee; Roerslev, Dasilva (Janelt 67), Norgaard, Jensen, Henry; Toney, Mbeumo (Wissa 74). Unused substitutes: Hickey, Schade, M Jorgensen, Ghoddos, Strakosha, Lewis-Potter, Damsgaard.

Referee: P Bankes (Liverpool).