Leeds gifted win after Krul breaks
MARCELO BIELSA added another chapter to the unfolding story of Leeds’ resurgence, as Norwich were swatted away in front of their fans.
This comprehensive victory was achieved through two goals in six first-half minutes, through Mateusz Klich and Ezgjan Alioski, and completed midway through the second half by a solo effort from Pablo Hernandez.
The win allowed Leeds to go back to the Championship summit on goal difference from Middlesbrough, who had seen off West Bromwich on Friday night and are due at Elland Road this Friday.
Tony Pulis’s visitors are likely to offer sterner resistence than Norwich, who started brightly but faded alarmingly after two costly errors from goalkeeper Tim Krul. First the Dutchman palmed out Alioski’s diving header to give Klich a simple finish and was then beaten by Macedonia midfielder Alioski at his near post for the second.
Hernandez then hit his third of the season, cutting inside from the left to curl across Krul to complete the scoring in the 67th minute.
Bielsa left everybody in no doubt how much he values Hernandez by speaking at great length about his qualities afterwards.
‘He is a complete player from every perspective,’ he said. ‘I think he can make me a better head coach because I see solutions in the decisions he is taking that I only saw very few times during my career.
‘He is a real silent leader. He always takes responsibility for the difficult things. He does all this without saying a word.’
Norwich boss Daniel Farke knew he would be required to say a few words about Krul’s performance but gave no indication he was planning to drop the Holland international, who had been guilty of a goal-costing error in a previous home defeat by West Bromwich.
‘We back him and totally trust him,’ he said. ‘He will respond I’m sure.’
Norwich only occasionally threatened the Leeds goal, and mostly through set-pieces, although Teemu Pukki was twice stopped by brave blocks by Pontus Jansson and Kalvin Phillips.
‘For us it is a disappointing result — it was 100 per cent possible to be the first team to beat Leeds,’ added Farke, somewhat optimistically.