'We have to have it' - Rodrigo hails Leeds United mentality in West Brom hammering

Rodrigo has hailed Leeds United's attacking mentality that helped them hammer West Bromwich Albion 5-0.

Marcelo Bielsa's men ended the year in style at the Hawthorns, making the Baggies pay on a night they dominated proceedings from start to finish.

Leeds secured a second successive victory in the space of three days as they continued to bounce back from a disappointing defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford before Christmas.

Albion midfielder Romaine Sawyers opened the scoring on Tuesday night with a bizarre own goal, finding the back of his own net with a loose back pass that evaded goalkeeper Sam Johnstone.

Gjanni Alioski and Jack Harrison added to the scoreline and Spain international Rodrigo gave the visitors a four-goal cushion at the half-time interval in the Midlands.

Winger Raphinha rounded off the scoring against Sam Allardyce's men, curling a shot home into the top corner from the edge of the box to complete a well worked move from Bielsa's men.

"We deserved the win," Rodrigo reflected post-match.

"We faced the game as we needed to do. We came from a tough game against Burnley and I think the team deserved the win.

"We created great chances. It's true that when you score at the beginning of the game the opponent needs to take more risks and give more spaces in the defence.

"We took advantage of it. We didn't stop, we scored the first goal and went for more. This is the mentality that we have to have to face the games."

Asked about the free-flowing performance in midweek compared to the gritty win over Burnley at the weekend, he said: "It was very different, especially the second half.

"I think against Burnley we did a very good first half. In the second half they were better than us. I think today we dominated the game from the beginning to the end."

United bagged a string of impressive goals against West Brom.

Alioski drilled home off the inside of the post with authority before Harrison and Raphinha finished well after two impressive team moves from back to front.

Quizzed over who he thought scored the best of the night, Rodrigo joked: "Me... no. I think Jack scored a very beautiful goal.

"[It was] a great collective [goal] and at the end there was great individual skill to finish the [attacking] action. For me, he scored the best goal today."