Mateusz Klich on fitness levels as Leeds United midfielder closes in on incredible two-season sequence

The Pole’s first season at the Whites featured just one league start and Klich knew he was capable of much more than that.

Yet even Klich admits starting every single league game since would have been beyond expectations and the Pole’s batteries are showing no signs of draining as he closes in on the remarkable feat of 94 consecutive Championship starts not out.

After joining United from FC Twente in June 2017, Klich had to wait until the end of September to net his first Whites league start and his outing from the off in the 3-1 loss at Cardiff City under former boss Thomas Christiansen would prove his last Whites league start of his maiden United campaign.

League games wise, only one more outing from the bench followed in the 1-0 loss at Birmingham City at the end of December before Klich was sent out on loan for the remainder of the season to FC Utrecht.

Klich was adamant United were making a mistake with the Pole vowing to return to prove a point.

Step one of that aim was completed when the midfielder lined up from the start for the 2018-19 curtain raiser at home to Stoke City and scoring in the process after impressing new boss Marcelo Bielsa over the summer.

As far as Whites’ league games are concerned, it has been the same story in every game since with Klich having now started United’s last 89 league games including both legs of last season’s play-offs semi-finals.

Five more starts will make it 94 and two seasons not out and Klich says United’s league position means he is not even contemplating any feelings of tiredness after surprising even himself with his incredible run.

“I feel good,” Klich told The Yorkshire Evening Post.

“When you keep winning games and you are in first place you don’t really feel tired. You want to play the next game after the next game and I don’t really feel tired yet. I am probably going to feel it after the season.

“It’s going to be a very short break and I will need to recharge my batteries but thanks God I feel okay. I don’t have any injuries so I hope I can play as much as I can.”

Assessing just what starting every single league game for two consecutive seasons would mean personally, Klich reasoned: “It’s a hard achievement to be fair, playing two whole seasons in the Championship is 92 league games.

"It’s very demanding, very physical and before Leeds I never thought I would be able to do it.

"But I am okay, and it’s doable.”

Klich certainly looked in fine fettle in his latest outing which came in Saturday’s 3-1 win at Blackburn Rovers with the midfielder’s energetic pressing leading to United’s opening goal for Patrick Bamford.

After a stunning Kalvin Phillips free-kick had doubled the Whites’ lead, Klich himself then bagged United’s third goal to restore Leeds’ two-goal cushion after Rovers had halved the deficit through Adam Armstrong’s free-kick. Klich is now on six goals for the current campaign.

“I’m pleased because it ended up in the goal and that’s important for me,” said Klich.

“It wasn’t the best strike in my life but a goal is a goal and we won.”

After continuing to pour forwards even when 3-1 up, the only mystery is how Blackburn held firm without conceding a fourth. For Leeds, there was no sitting back and that, says Klich, is the way things swill stay.

“That’s the thing with our style,” said the 30-year-old Pole.

“We always play the same football, even if we are winning, even if it’s a close game like one-zero, we still go forward.

“A couple of times we got punished for it but we are not going to change and this is the way we play.

“I enjoy it a lot and it allows me to get high up on the pitch and press high. That’s very important for us.”

And individually speaking, the clash at Ewood Park was also a case of ‘mission accomplished’ for Klich who, it’s fair to say, was not best pleased with his own performance in the midweek 1-1 draw at home to Luton Town.

“After the last game, I was saying to my parents and my girlfriend that I cannot play worse than I did against Luton,” said Klich.

“I wanted to play better and I wanted to score a goal finally because it’s about time.

“We all played good, they were very hard conditions, the pitch wasn’t great but we didn’t want to use that as an excuse.

"We wanted to show that we will fight to the end.”