As we near the turn of the New Year and 2019, Leeds United’s form in the first half of the 2018/19 campaign under manager Marcelo Bielsa continues to leave us as one of the favourites to win promotion back to the Premier League this season.
Going into Sunday’s clash with fellow promotion hopefuls Aston Villa at Villa Park, Leeds were sat in second place, just two points behind current leaders Norwich City who bounced back into top spot on Saturday and we were still three points ahead of West Bromwich Albion who occupy third place.
Speaking to Leeds Live ahead of the game, centre-half and fan favourite Pontus Jansson said that the squad had to learn from previous seasons and we couldn’t allow complacency to become our enemy as we go into the second half of the campaign.
“My first year, I saw the good side of Leeds and last year I saw the bad side of Leeds. Now, when we win games it is nice but I also know how quickly it can change and we have to be clever.”
Jansson is of course spot on here, we’ve had strong periods before that have given rise to hope, but we’ve let ourselves down on the pitch and undone those efforts with a lack of consistency and ensuring that doesn’t happen again is absolutely key to our chances.
In some ways the Aston Villa game was a good one on that score, as we dug in, performed well and fought back from behind and we have now over doubled our points from 2017/18 from a losing position, so the players are keenly aware of that.