Mateusz Klich on preferring to play promotion rivals and why Leeds United cannot afford any more bad moments

Mateusz Klich knows Leeds United cannot afford to have any more bad moments – as he describes – with 11 games of the Championship campaign to go.

The Whites claimed victory on just two occasions from mid-December to mid-February in league action, a run of 10 matches which saw Kiko Casilla fail to keep a single clean sheet.

Marcelo Bielsa’s 11-point advantage over third-place also quickly disappeared in the race for automatic promotion to the Premier League – though his side never fell out of the top two spots despite the disappointing run of results.

A recent upturn in form, though, has seen Leeds get their bid to break a 16-year absence from the top flight back on track.

United’s 1-1 draw at Brentford has been followed by three 1-0 victories, turning a bad moment into a very good one as Leeds opened up a five-point gap from second to third once again.

"We can’t afford any bad moments any more and we have to keep winning games," Klich admitted.

"Everyone is talking about promotion and we don’t really want to do the same as we did last season. To do that, we need to keep clean sheets and score goals, although I would take 1-0 every time.

"If you are winning games and second in the league, everyone is happy because you are winning games, that’s football.

"We want to keep these feelings in the 11 games left. I hope it is going to be like this all the time because it is a good feeling and I have been in dressing rooms when you are playing against relegation and it is not a great feeling.

"Especially on the pitch, people are discussing and fighting with each other and it does not help. In our team, you can see on the pitch that everyone is supporting each other and fighting for each other."

United’s midweek victory at Middlesbrough saw them forced into a scrap at the Riverside, with the hosts finding their Championship status suddenly under threat.

Klich knows that it is something Leeds may have to be wary of during the run-in and with United’s next two opponents – Hull City and Huddersfield Town – both looking downwards rather than up.

"I said to my girlfriend and parents that I’d rather play top-six teams than teams who are fighting against relegation," he continued.

"Obviously in the Championship, there are no easy games and it does not really matter if you play against the bottom or the top teams as statistically, it is crazy."

Leeds make the short trip to the KCOM Stadium today with the Tigers winless in nine league outings, a run which stretches back to New Year’s Day.

"I am expecting a similar game (at Hull),” Klich added.

"It is going to be probably the same; we need to score first and quick – and score the second goal to kill the game as that is what we missed (at Middlesbrough)."

The Poland international bagged his fifth goal of the campaign in midweek, which proved to be the winner as he sent the 4,500 travelling fans wild in first half stoppage time.

Klich is scoring goals, as the song goes, but he and his team-mates know they must start finding the back of the net consistently to help relieve pressure from striker Patrick Bamford who is now on a run of six games without a goal.

"You see West Brom and the top-scorer gets eight or nine goals, while at Fulham, it is only Mitrovic who is scoring (regular) goals," Klich said.

"At the end, it does not matter who is scoring goals. As a team, you need goals and we need more goals as a team.

"I need to score more goals, Pablo (Hernandez) needs to score more goals and there’s the wingers. I am expecting goals from everyone and if everyone can help, that’s nice."