Dealing with excitement, tension and pressure - how Tyler Roberts and Leeds United are adapting to the promotion race

The result, a helpful 1-1 draw, was the only thing he wanted to know and the only thing that mattered.

Most of Leeds was gripped by the football at St Andrew's and some of Bielsa’s players might have been too but Tyler Roberts chose to distract himself with Barcelona’s Champions League tie at Manchester United, played as Sheffield United’s visit to the Midlands raged.

Footballers talk about controlling whatever they can control and the inactive moments of a promotion fight must be the worst part.

“You’ve got the app on your phone to see what the score is and I was flicking over the channels,” Roberts said, “but it’s more a fact that we’ve got five games to go, we’ve got to win five games and that’s the end of it.

“I watched Barca and then looked at the (Sheffield United) result afterwards. It’s a positive result for us but it doesn’t make a difference. I keep track of the table and points and stuff but we’ve got a job to do and that’s all we’ve got to do.”

Leeds and Sheffield United have been bouncing in and out of second place in the Championship for weeks, unable to make a lasting profit from the other’s results, but they are in the zone where a single slip could be decisive.

Bielsa’s players lost their footing at Birmingham last Saturday but regained it against Preston in midweek, winning 2-0 at Deepdale.

Sheffield United beat Preston over the weekend but were held at St Andrew's; a four-point haul from two hard away fixtures which would have been satisfactory midway through the term but fell short of what was needed with so few games left.

Leeds retain a slender initiative, second with a point’s advantage in a league which looks increasingly likely to be won by Norwich City. Bielsa asked for five more victories yesterday and Roberts has got the message, anxious to make certain of automatic promotion by giving Sheffield United no way back.

Tomorrow, the Blades’ neighbours and adversaries, Sheffield Wednesday, are at Elland Road with an intriguing part to play in the shake-up at the top of the division.

The Owls have long since been out of the running for automatic promotion themselves, and were never in it, but the scenario this weekend could see them do Chris Wilder’s squad a huge favour at Leeds’ expense.

There is no love lost between Wednesday and Leeds but less still between the two Sheffield clubs, neither of whom take civic pride in the other’s achievements.

Some might wonder if Sheffield Wednesday would be reluctant to stick a spoke in Leeds’ wheel.

“No, definitely not,” Roberts insisted.

“They’ve got their own target to get into the play-offs and they’ll be coming to win the game, the same as any other team would.

“They’re always going to be a tough team to play against. We saw that at their place. It’s going to be a good game but we’ve got five left and the way we’re setting out to go at them is to win five.”

Wednesday are a significantly different proposition after the appointment in January of Steve Bruce, a wily and proven campaigner in the Championship who provided a necessary change of tack after the failed, and somewhat random, tenure of Jos Luhukay at Hillsborough.

Bruce has suffered only one defeat as manager, against Aston Villa last weekend, but that loss threatened to put the play-offs beyond them.

Wednesday are 10th, six points behind Bristol City in sixth, and would need a lot of help to negate that gap.

For Leeds, promotion is in their hands but only just.

Sheffield United boast a slightly better goal difference and both teams have scored 68 times, creating the genuine if unlikely possibility that second place could end in a dead heat (a situation which, according to EFL rules, would result in a play-off for the last automatic promotion spot).

Middlesbrough and Brighton were as close as this in 2016 when Boro made it by the merest of fractions.

Roberts has found himself in the thick of it recently, entrusted by Bielsa with the number 10 role which has never quite filled itself since Samuel Saiz went home to Spain in December.

The 20-year-old always thought of himself as a centre-forward but his current position works towards one of his strengths, the willingness to attack space, occupy defenders and keep the opposition guessing.

Roberts has not scored since October but can feel the thought of a place in the Premier League overriding other ambitions.

“In training it’s been different for me, taking up new positions and learning about it all, but it’s been a real positive,” he said.

“It gives me a lot more freedom to roam about and get on the ball and it’s given me a boost in confidence.

“I like to get on the ball and try and beat players and this allows me to do that. I’d like to get a few more goals and more assists but the main thing is just promotion.”

The tussle with Sheffield United will be done in three weeks’ time, if not before, and the value of actions of words has been epitomised by the dwindling length of Bielsa’s pre-match press conferences; once in the habit of lasting for 45 minutes, now over in a third of the time. There is little left to say but much still to do.

“I wouldn’t say we feel pressure,” Roberts said.

“It’s more excitement for us. Positivity’s flowing through the camp.”