Diego Llorente: I had the belief of my coach and teammates

Diego Llorente: I had the belief of my coach and teammates

Defender on first campaign with Leeds.

Leeds United defender Diego Llorente has spoken about his first season at the club, after helping the Whites to a ninth placed finish in the Premier League

Llorente, who joined the club last September from Real Sociedad, will now link up with the Spain squad for Euro 2020 and the 27-year-old will be looking to add to his seven caps for his country this summer.

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.

“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."

Llorente also spoke about the importance of how the Whites prepare for matches and how he bought into the process from day one.

“The training is extremely demanding and I think that's key when it comes to the game because it enables you to perform really well and to be physically on your game for 90 minutes.

“Despite it being a very demanding way of playing, I knew that it was a good way of playing and one that could bring good results, so that was the reason I believed in the project of Leeds and knew that we could go on to do well in the Premier League.

“So, my experience has been great so far and I'm just really looking forward to playing even more minutes and contributing more.”

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