Jesse Marsch explains Weston McKennie and Patrick Bamford decisions for Leeds United vs Forest

Jesse Marsch says his decision to choose Patrick Bamford to lead the line against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground was a ‘relatively easy’ decision.

Bamford makes his first Premier League start since October after Rodrigo was ruled out with an ankle injury until the end of March. Rodrigo has scored 10 goals in 18 games in the Premier League this term, but Marsch has no doubts that Bamford can fill the void left by the Spaniard.

“Patrick for me is in his best form since I’ve known him. It’s clear in training every day that he looks physically close to 100% and that he’s playing with a lot of quality right now,” Marsch told Sky Sports ahead of the game.

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“Scoring goals for fun. So I think it was relatively easy to know that he can fill in for Rodrigo in the moment. We’ve also got Georginio [Rutter] on the bench and he’ll be ready when he comes on the pitch.”

January signing Weston McKennie was in contention to make his debut for the Whites, but will have to make his Premier League bow from the bench.

Marsch has opted for the usual midfield duo of Tyler Adams and Marc Roca, and believes it was the best choice ‘tactically’. However, he did hint that McKennie could start in either of the upcoming fixtures against Manchester United.

“With this group, we knew that this would be the best for this match. That there is a lot of clarity on the pitch for how he want to play tactically.

“Weston has fitted in really well and had a really good week of training. We have three matches this week, so we’ll have to have some rotation, and certainly I think he’ll feature from the start in one of these matches, but today from the bench I know he’ll be ready.”

Marsch made five changes in total from the FA Cup victory over Accrington Stanley. There’s no Robin Koch due to suspension and that means Marsch has made three changes to his back line.

Luke Ayling returns at right-back, while Liam Cooper and Pascal Struijk have both shaken off injuries to start once more in the Premier League.

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