Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa demanded improvement from his promotion-chasing side after a hard-earned derby win at Huddersfield.
Goals from Ezgjan Alioski and Pablo Hernandez secured a sixth consecutive win that saw Bielsa’s side climb above promotion rivals West Brom.
But Argentine Bielsa still believes there is room for improvement from his team despite them extending their unbeaten run to nine matches.
“We defended set-pieces badly, but our first goal from Alioski made it easier for us to develop the play,” reflected Bielsa.
“In the first half we should have created more chances, but we had some opportunities and we couldn’t end them very well.
“We could have scored more goals, but we could have conceded a goal as well.
“We struggled with our last past when we arrived in good positions, but it’s good to have chances rather than not.
“The second half was different, but we had problems in both halves with set-pieces.”
Leeds have four more points now than at the same stage last season, but Bielsa is adamant it is hard to make a comparison of their hopes of achieving promotion to the Premier League.
“We can not test the team in this moment, we need more time to test this,” stressed the Argentine.
Former Real Madrid keeper Kiko Casilla made two excellent saves to deny striker Steve Mounie and then midfielder Elias Kachunga after the break.
And Bielsa praised his keeper’s influential display adding: “We wish he’d have less to do, but today he had a great impact on the result.
“He made two important saves and made a big impact.”
Huddersfield manager Danny Cowley was proud of his players and frustrated there was no end product to reward a battling performance.
“We did well in the first half and played with energy and purpose, we disrupted their [Leeds] rhythm,” reflected Cowley.
“They scored with their first shot on target, but we’ll always be critical when we concede goals.
“We then chased the game and that left us open, which is always going to happen against a team as good as Leeds.
“But I’m proud of my players because we changed the style and the system. We only had 11 senior players, so that’s why we did it.
“We tried to hurt them in the spaces behind and I thought we showed good penetration at times.
“But we weren’t able to get good value for chances which we needed to.
“It’s been a learning curve in football because Marcelo Bielsa is a pioneer in football.
“It’s been one of my toughest weeks in football, but we did cause them some problems.”
Huddersfield have gone five matches without a win and this defeat was their first to Leeds for four years.
“It’s not terminal here, but there is a storm,” warned Cowley. “But we have to roll with the punches and get over these disappointments.
“We spoke to him [Bielsa] after the game and he said ‘in January, you’ll be a team on the way up!
“It was a nice thing for him to say. Hopefully he sees we’re in a difficult position, but fighting hard for each other.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here