Jesse Marsch on signs of Leeds United progress: Energy, challenging under-performance, training and feel

The American has been ridiculed in some quarters for his seemingly non-stop assertions that his team are making progress not reflected in the league table.

Leeds went into the Premier League weekend in 15th, three points and two places behind Sunday's hosts Nottingham Forest with a game in hand.

They have lost once in seven matches, a sequence which includes two FA Cup wins, but the last time they beat a Premier League side was on November 5. They have only won four league games all term.

"There’s been an energy in the team," said Marsch when asked why he was so convinced things were going better than the results might suggest. "And we’ve challenged each other when we haven’t performed the way that we believe that we can.

"I think everybody has responded to it in a positive way and not taken it as overly-critical, but a challenge.

"Training, for me, over the past two months has been fantastic. It has always been good here but now it’s not just the quality, it’s the commitment to the understanding of the principles of how we want to play the game, that has grown.

"That has led to more confidence and even after a match like Villa (a 2-1 defeat in mid-January) I wasn’t going to allow any negativity from the outside to seep into what we are achieving right now. Because I knew that inside we are on the right track and there’s real belief now.

"And sometimes it’s just a feel of how the group is. Right now it’s really strong, and it’s exciting and it’s powerful. But now we need the results to back it all up."