Everything Leeds United's Jesse Marsch said on Gandhi quote, relegation and more ahead of Chelsea

Jesse Marsch held court with journalists this morning as the Leeds United head coach dissected the Arsenal defeat which plunged the Whites into the bottom three.

"I'll start with the injury situation," Marsch began. "So Liam Cooper last time I said he was going to be ready to play and he trained and we thought he was going to be available and then he had a small little reaction leading up to the match. We all felt like it wouldn't be prudent for him to push himself with the possibility that we would lose him for the remaining games. So, I believe now he trained a bit yesterday, and I believe after that and now going into this next phase that he is better and he has less pain and I believe he will be available but we still have to go through day-by-day. Patrick Bamford is on the pitch, doing individual work, hopefully in team training by the end of the week, and doing fairly well so again it's another one that's day to day but we're all monitoring progress. and we're about on track so we'll so what that means going forward but he won't be available tomorrow and then the rest is all the same."

The team haven't been in the bottom three since October - have you worked with them to be positive in the last few games of the season?

Yeah, I mean that's definitely my way of leading and being positive. We had a talk yesterday, what's involved in the moment? I think if you look at the nine games I've been here there've been a lot of good performances, we've picked up points in a lot of matches. I think we've responded in many ways in what I'm trying to do with the group, we've stuck together, it hasn't been easy, but I said if this was the ninth game of the season and we went to Arsenal and went a man down it dug a big hole for ourselves. And second half, we played like that and found a way to get back in the game and almost were able to tie the match up, we would have taken in the ninth game of the season, we would have taken away as a big positive, but the situation that we're in means that there's stress. We're trying to manage that. And we have to accept the fact that we're in a situation, know that we have to stay strong. And we have to know that we have to play with no regrets and we have to make sure that we go after it. And we have to push down everything we can which the guys have already done and now on gameday we have to be a combination of pragmatic and clever and do whatever it takes to tactically be sharp and clear, to defend our goal and to find ways to be dangerous.

I'm sure you've seen that stat. Most yellow cards and the Premier League season. How important will discipline the ensure survival?

Yeah, so it's the yellow card thing you might say that because of Luke Ayling's situation as well. Let address Luke's situation you know for me, as much as people want to maybe draw stories of whatever they want about what the last years have been here at Leeds United, I think the Luke Ayling story is as much a definition of what this club has become as anything. Guys like him and Kalvin and Liam and Stuart who came from the Championship, who learned so much under Marcelo Bielsa and grew and helped this club become a Premiership team again and so, for me Luke is the definition of heart, fight, hard work, mentality, dedication - in every way he defines what we want this club to be about. And in one situation, he jeopardises all of that, that he's invested for himself and for the team. And so for me at the moment, of course I think about how this hurts us as a team, but honestly, I think more about Luke the person, how he has to deal with this moment, how he knows he's let the team down and he's not going to be available for these last matches. He's still gonna be massively in terms of making sure our group is strong and together and we are with him. I said after the match this is not the time for finger-pointing and blaming, this is the time for sticking together and believing in who we are and what we are, and so that's the way I've dealt with it. I've supported Luke, internally and externally as well. He's a massive part of everything that we do here. And I hope that our fans and supporters understand that as well.

When it comes to the conversation around relegation, do you think the fact that you went five unbeaten before Manchester City and Arsenal has been forgotten about a little bit?

No. Internally I think we know that we still have a good group and that we can manage the situations and even against the team like Chelsea, we believe we can get a result at home. We knew coming into these three matches with City, Arsenal and Chelsea , it was going to be very, very difficult to pick up points - and it has proved to be that like we knew it was. And so we still have so much to play for. So our focus is really on controlling every moment and being prepared for every moment. Credit to Burnley and Everton, credit to them. In a difficult moment, they've also fought for their lives and done whatever's possible to claw their way back into the situation and we'll do the same.

Erling Haaland is a player that you worked with, looks to be coming to the Premier League - what do you think he can bring?

Erling Haaland is destined to be one of the best players in the world. It's his quality but it's also his talent. I wish he were coming back home here to Leeds, this is his birthplace. But I understand the decision for him to go to Man City. It'll be interesting. He's an explosive player in transition and Man City often plays a lot in possession. He can play any style of play, but certainly I believe it makes Man City, one of the best teams in the world even better, so credit to them for getting that done and I always wish the best for Erling, he's an incredible human being.

Jamie Shackleton, do you see him as a natural fit in at right-back in the absence of Luke Ayling?

It's one of the possibilities. Jamie was hurt for a relatively long stretch since I've been here, but I've gotten to know him more and more. I've watched him with the 23s. I've also gone back and watched the games that he's played this year. And the moments that he's had on the pitch so I think he can potentially fit into that whether we play with four or five. We've also visited the possibility of playing one of our centre backs and also with Raphinha and Dan James who did that admirably in a five against Arsenal. I'm certainly not going to give away what we're going to do but Jamie is definitely in the mix.

Raphinha looked to be losing his head a little during the game, how do you get the best out of him?

First of all I like Raphinha's passion and mentality and his personality and desire to win and be a great player. He is a fantastic talent. We haven't gotten enough out of him. That's the truth. And so, you know, we've tried to find ways to play with him a little bit wider. We've tried to find ways for him to be in transition moments a little bit more. We've tried to find ways to get him around the goal more. Against these opponents, the best opponents it's not like we're going to be in the final third for you know, 50% of the game where we can really get them on the ball. So obviously that means getting him in transition and finding opportunities for getting around the goal in those moments is the way that he can be dangerous. Playing him at wing-back then doesn't always provide him the chance to be in those spaces but we'll figure out how to get him the ball more, how to get him in space more, how to get him on the move more, so that you can be dangerous and help the team.