Tyler Roberts discusses his best night for Leeds as he makes promotion vow

Tyler Roberts has admitted to enjoying his starring role as Leeds’ No 10 against West Brom – and insists the players are doing all they can do bring Premier League football to Elland Road.

The Whites produced what many felt was their best performance in over a decade on Friday as Marcelo Bielsa’s side returned to form at a crucial time as promotion rivals Albion were steamrollered 4-0 at Elland Road.

Although the match produced a number of brilliant individual displays, it was the performance of Roberts in a No 10 role that arguably produced the biggest talking point; the former Albion man laying on two goals in the game and walking away with a deserved man of the match award.

Normally a striker, Roberts insists he revelled in his deeper role, telling the Yorkshire Evening Post: “It’s a position where I’ve never really played for a long period of time.

“But I enjoy it and the gaffer’s shown me what it’s all about, how I should play there. He’s shown me what kind of attributes I need to put into that position and it’s helped me a lot.”

Being named Man of the Match was a career first for Roberts, who joined Leeds in a £2.5million move from West Brom in January 2018, but had to wait until August to make his first-team debut for the club.

“It added a little bit of an incentive, of course, but I try to perform like that in every game,” Roberts said. “Hopefully this will help me push on to become more of a big part of the team.

“It’s my first man-of-the-match award so it’s obviously a special moment. My parents and friends will be buzzing but it was just a big thing for me to come out and express myself. “I’ve had some good performances but never really shown what I’m about by getting at players and taking players on.

“I focused on that and it came together.”

 

Roberts denies Leeds burn-out claims

Defeat at QPR last Tuesday placed plenty of question marks over the staying power of Bielsa’s squad, but Roberts denied claims the squad could suffer burn-out and insisted they would do all they can to secure promotion.

“To be fair, it’s the first time I have heard of that (burn-out),” Roberts added. “We don’t really look at the press too much because we know what we’re about.

“There’s going to be good press about us and there’s going to be bad press but as long as we stick together as a team then we can do the job and we’ll go up.”

 

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