Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa on Ewood surprises in win over Blackburn Rovers

The Whites are now 10 points from automatic promotion with five games remaining, thanks to the win.

An early strike from Patrick Bamford settled any nerves before Phillips' wonderstrike and, after Rovers scored a free-kick of their own, Mateusz Klich's sixth of the season.

The Polish international's second half goal capped what Bielsa felt was a standout individual performance.

"He had a great match today," said Bielsa of the man who links defence and attack for Leeds.

"He unbalanced the match for us.

"He was the player who unbalanced the teams today."

It was arguably the most entertaining of Leeds' games since the restart, Blackburn having a go at Leeds in the wake of Bamford's opener and coming close to equalising on three occasions.

Bielsa admitted that his opposite number Tony Mowbray had surprised him the placement of Rovers' attackers.

"It was very difficult to imagine what kind of match we were going to have," said the Argentine.

"The opponent was playing with different shapes and today they made some changes we didn't expect. Number nine as a right winger, number eight as a left winger, number seven as a centre forward. That was new for today's match."

And Phillips' decision to curl the ball into Walton's top right hand corner also surprised his head coach.

"Kalvin has a very good quality with the inside of his foot," said Bielsa.

"I didn't expect the ball to go to the post where the keeper wasn't there. I thought he was going to shoot as in the last match, to the goalkeeper's side but it was a beautiful goal."

Bielsa was without Stuart Dallas [glute] and Helder Costa [knee] for the fixture and had to bring Barry Douglas and Gjanni Alioski into the side.

The replacements both performed well in the absence of two players Bielsa said came close to passing fit.

Pablo Hernandez was able to get another half an hour in his rehabilitation of a hamstring injury, Bielsa deciding it was still necessary to put the playmaker on the pitch even at 3-1 up.

"Pablo came onto the pitch at the moment we thought we needed his play, to manage the ball and the last pass," he said.

"At that moment Tyler was weaker physically. Always when you have a substitute that should play in the 11 starters it is very important."

Despite Leeds' control and second half dominance, Bielsa still cut an anxious figure on the touchline and continued to call for urgency from his players late on when the win was imminent.

He says the consequence of each result in the run-in demands full focus.

"Every match in this period is very important," he said.

"Every distraction we pay for that, so we need to keep focus."