Leeds United returned to the top of the Championship table on Saturday afternoon after they swept aside Middlesbrough 4-0 at Elland Road.
Strikes from Patrick Bamford and Helder Costa, plus a brace from Mateusz Klich ensured that Marcelo Bielsa's side claimed their biggest win of the season and ensured that Jonathan Woodgate endured a miserable return to his former club.
Here is every question and answer from Bielsa's post-match press conference.
Congratulations Marcelo - a very comprehensive victory but what pleased you most?
We defended very well. We kept the initiative in all the game, in every moment of the game.
There was a moment in the middle of the first half when we didn't create a lot of chances, but we didn't suffer as well. But it’s important, we have to say, Middlesbrough missed eight senior players through injury. That is important. They lost a little bit of impact. The players they missed are important players and if they had all their players maybe the match would have been more difficult.
Was the task to avoid complacency today?
A lot of mobility. Variety to attack. And we made a lot of effort in defence to defend.
When you say you defended well - do you mean in reclaiming the ball or restricting shots?
It’s a fact. We recovered the ball fast, that's a fact but they had two good strikers in front and those two players today didn’t have an impact on the match. Maybe it’s because as you say, we recovered the ball quickly and they didn’t have many balls. But it's possible that how Ayling, White, Berardi, Cooper’s defended avoided how the attackers received the ball.
Helder Costa - how did his performance today show how well he's improving now?
He gave a step forward today. He scored. He is developing, but he can show more impact to unbalance the game than the impact he showed today. But every week he is improving and developing.
We understand Kalvin Phillips will be suspended for Huddersfield - is Ben White the solution in midfield?
Yes. He’s our most important option.
The short corner for Klich's goal - was that something you instructed your players on or did they come up with it?
We took your recommendation.
What did you say to Jonathan Woodgate? He's a young manager going through a challenging path...
It’s not a good idea to give an opinion after we won and they lost. I think their players that weren't there today for Middlesbrough, left full-back, two centre-backs, playmakers, too many important players out of the team. To think that Middlesbrough we’ve seen today is the real Middlesbrough, but we have to say from the minute number 10 and the minute number 30, both teams played similar. We scored in the beginning and end of the first half. Sometimes this fact makes easier the development of the match.
With Eddie Nketiah back on the bench, how pleased were you with you with Patrick Bamford after he responded like that?
It’s a long competition. It’s very important we have players who play in different positions, like Pablo, Dallas or Alioski. Also important to have two options in each position. Both positions with the same level. We are happy Eddie comes back. Yesterday he played 45 minutes and today he had 20 more minutes. Step-by-step he will get his fitness level to come back to competition.
How important will those goals be for Mateusz Klich? He's not scored many goals this season after scoring a lot last year?
When you improve your efficiency, that makes the self-esteem of the attack better. I value the offensive production of the team regarding the chances we had, but the efficiency of the match had more impact, it defines everything.
What about Klich personally?
I remember the first match of last season. He showed an ability to shoot outside of the box with a similar shot as today. We hope that he repeats that kind of shot in the future.
Leeds are back on top - how significant at this stage of the season?
It’s important. But we all know that it’s a long way forward. We have to give some value to the current position in the table because in a league like the Championship, the future is built match-by-match. But the most important is the regularity in every match to make a difference. We cannot talk about regularity if we don’t let the league go more forward.
Five wins in a row - how would you sum up the month of November?
One part of the competition where you win five matches always is good, but we also know we won two matches at the end of the match against Luton and Reading, so there are a lot of details we have to analyse and take into account. It's not just winning, you have to analyse how you win every match.
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