David Prutton believes that Leeds United can lay claim to being the best team in the Championship when they are on form.
He says that manager Marcelo Bielsa has helped them lived up to the expectations of them so far, and at times, have even gone beyond them – and hailed the boss for being able to turn a group of players who looked like they would finish in the middle of the table to promotion contenders.
The Sky Sports pundit says all the Whites need to do now in order to achieve their Premier League ambitions is coping with the pressure that comes their way as well as being able to maintain their good form.
“Leeds always operate under great expectation due to the fanbase, which I can testify to being both passionate and extremely sizeable. Under Bielsa they’ve lived up to expectations so far, probably even surpassed them,” he told Sky Sports.
“He’s a manager who has managed to elevate a group of players that looked to be fair to middle over the course of the last two of three seasons. From their point of view, I think they’ve set a hell of a pace of their own and they’ve been a team that, on its day, can lay claim to being one of the best in the division.
“From now on in, it’s dealing with the pressure and hoping to maintain that consistency to be there at the end of the season.”
OPINION
Over the last couple of seasons or so, Leeds have often been the team who would linger in the middle of the table – promotion was not really achievable for them. However, since Bielsa has come in, that has all changed, and like Prutton said, they can now lay claim to being one of the best teams in the Championship when they are on form. There have been times when fans may have questioned that – they had a bit of a slump near Christmas – but overall, the pundit is right to hail Bielsa for the way he has been able to surpass people’s expectations of his team. Nobody would have thought that they would be in second place and one of the favourites for league promotion when their last manager was in charge, but they have just taken the division by storm and built up the quality that they already had.