Glowing verdict delivered on Leeds United's Premier League campaign as trio earn plaudits

Nine out of 10 Whites fans believed the Elland Road outfit performed above expectations across the top flight season.

As part of the Yorkshire Evening Post's 'Big LUFC end of season survey', we quizzed our readers on a number of topics from across the year.

Leeds earned promotion from the Championship last summer in style as they ended a 16-year hiatus from England's top division.

Head coach Marcelo Bielsa masterminded a ninth-place finish at the first time of asking in the Premier League and has wowed the club's fan base with his work in West Yorkshire over the past three years.

Ahead of a ball being kicked in anger last September, 69.3 per cent of respondents said they expected a bottom half finish in the final standings for Leeds this term but 20.6 per cent backed United to finish where they did in the top half.

Supporters were also quizzed on their player of the season, which perhaps unsurprisingly went to Bielsa's key utility man Stuart Dallas who claimed 75.4 per cent of the vote.

The Northern Irishman was also voted as scoring the goal of the season by the LS11 faithful for his winner against Manchester City at the Etihad stadium - a late 2-1 victory in April which took the result of the season prize with 82.1 per cent backing that choice.

Elsewhere, Brazilian winger Raphinha took the gong from fans for the signing of the season with 80.1 per cent of the vote.

The 24-year-old impressed following his arrival from Stade Rennes, scoring six goals and bagging nine assists in 30 league games.

Whites supporters were also questioned over how much of an impact the absence of having fans in the stands had on the campaign as a whole.

Elland Road saw seats filled at a reduced capacity on the final day of the Premier League season for a 3-1 win over West Bromwich Albion but Bielsa's men had played out the rest of the campaign behind closed doors amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over half the responses at 50.4 per cent indicated that people believed it had a big impact while 23.1 per cent said it had no impact at all.

A small percentage (14.3 per cent) said they thought the lack of support actually benefited the team while 12.2 per cent thought it helped shape the season.