Diego Llorente says he owes his successful first season with Leeds United to manager Marcelo Bielsa.
After a difficult start to his Leeds career with injury, Llorente became a mainstay at the heart of the defence from February, starting 13 games in a row and keeping six clean sheets with a string of impressive displays and here he reflects on the campaign.
“It was a big adaptation for me, obviously changing country for the first time, I was now faced with a different language, different sets of circumstances when I trained and a new league," said Llorente, who arrived last summer from Real Sociedad.
“At first it was particularly hard and obviously the injuries made that adaptation process even more difficult, but in general I'm very happy and I think I adapted quite well once I managed to get those injuries behind me.
“I knew it wouldn't be too difficult to adapt to this style of play, because it was similar to the style of my previous team, but I think the Premier league is more physical than La Liga and you could say that that was what made it difficult for me at first.
“However, I had the belief of my coach and my teammates and that helped me a lot.
“With the help of my teammates, I think generally we can say that together we've performed well and I'm happy with it being my first year.
"Now I've got a lot of willingness to begin the next season, do well and get more games under my belt."
