'Show yourself' - Leeds United midfielder Mateusz Klich's Premier League message ahead of Newcastle United test

PREMIER League status means Leeds United's players have never played under as much scrutiny, but Mateusz Klich insists they should embrace it.
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Klich, like the vast majority of his Whites team-mates, got his first taste of English top flight action this season.

Experience of Poland's Ekstraklasa, Germany's 2. Bundesliga and the Dutch Eredivisie helped prepare the midfielder for life in the Championship with Leeds, before he became a stalwart of Marcelo Bielsa's side and eventually lifted the second tier title.

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But what the 30-year-old has experienced since promotion, is on a completely different scale.

RELISHING THE CHALLENGE: Leeds United's Polish international midfielder Mateusz Klich celebrates netting from the penalty spot in September's 4-3 victory at home to Fulham. Photo by Carl Recine - Pool/Getty Images.RELISHING THE CHALLENGE: Leeds United's Polish international midfielder Mateusz Klich celebrates netting from the penalty spot in September's 4-3 victory at home to Fulham. Photo by Carl Recine - Pool/Getty Images.
RELISHING THE CHALLENGE: Leeds United's Polish international midfielder Mateusz Klich celebrates netting from the penalty spot in September's 4-3 victory at home to Fulham. Photo by Carl Recine - Pool/Getty Images.

When you play in the Premier League, even in an empty stadium, you do so in front of a vast audience.

Leeds' fixture against Manchester City pulled in up to 2.2 million Sky Sports viewers back in October.

For context, the Whites' 2020 New Year's Day trip to West Brom for a Championship promotion battle was watched by 660,000 in Britain.

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The size, stature and history of the Peacocks has always made them box office, even if the attention they garnered during the club's worst spells was mostly ridicule, but their Premier League return has had everyone watching.

Marcelo Bielsa's playing style, the newly earned tag as top flight entertainers and all the goals that have flown in, at both ends of the pitch, have kept everyone talking, too.

Klich is happy to embrace it as an opportunity to show England and the rest of the world what he and Leeds can do.

"We are in the best league in the world and the most viewed league in the world," he said.

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"Everyone is watching, especially when you play for a big club like Leeds."

"But then you just need to show yourself and enjoy it on the pitch.

"This is also very important, if you enjoy what you are doing on the pitch."

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