Hull City v Leeds United: Why Mateusz Klich prefers facing top-six opposition

You would be right.

Leeds’s Polish purveyor of smart goals is not one of those ‘all the gear, no idea’ individuals who populate – some would say pollute – the game with their snappy threads and bling.

In a recent interview with a publication in his homeland for instance, he spoke about the importance of footballers shunning party lifestyles and not being a clothes horse to many well-known fashion labels or throwing money around.

Hard work and sacrifice is the old-fashioned route to the top for the senior professional and Klich, who turns 30 in the summer, is worth listening to.

His eclectic career has seen him play for Cravocia, in his native Poland, and also turn out in Germany for Wolfsburg and Kaiserslautern and in Holland with Zwolle and FC Twente.

Klich has sampled the angst of relegation fights alongside better days and just as his views on the conduct of footballers are stringent, so his take on Leeds’s current situation is revealing.

Many would venture that a second successive fixture against a demoralised Yorkshire side who are listing after an appalling run of form in 2020 in Hull City is perfectly-timed. Justifiably so.

For his part, Klich takes a wholly different view as Leeds prepare to face a wounded Tigers side who are without a league win in nine games since New Year’s Day, while you have to go back to December 21 for their last victory on home soil.

All told, Grant McCann’s side have taken two points from the last 27 available. At home, they have lost six of their last seven in all competitions, with the mood turning toxic again towards the Allam family, who own the club.

Yet for all that, Klich would still rather be elsewhere on Saturday.

“I said to my girlfriend and parents that I would rather play top-six teams than teams who are fighting against relegation,” said Klich.

“Obviously in the Championship, there are no easy games and it does not really matter if you play against the bottom or the top teams as, statistically, it is crazy.

“I am expecting a similar game (to Middlesbrough). It is going to be probably the same; we need to score first and quick – and score the second goal to kill the game as that is what we missed.”

Having been in rough positions at this stage of the season at some former clubs, Klich can vouch for how Hull players are feeling at the moment as they anxiously look over their shoulders and try to mentally prepare themselves for a relegation battle – when just a few months ago, the talk centred on the play-offs.

In this situation, emotions can be highly-charged, which can make for a dangerous animal.

The serenity in the Leeds camp is in stark contrast, but with the realisation that things can soon change if you do not keep your focus. If any team should know that, it is Leeds.

Klich added: “If you are winning games and second in the league, everyone is happy because you are winning games, that’s football. We want to keep these feelings in the 11 games left.

“I hope it is going to be like this all the time because it is a good feeling and I have been in dressing rooms when you are playing against relegation and it is not a great feeling.

“Especially on the pitch, people are discussing and fighting with each other and it does not help. In our team, you can see that everyone is supporting each other and fighting for each other. It is good.

“We cannot afford any bad moments any more and we have to keep winning games. Everyone is talking about promotion and we don’t really want to do the same as we did last season.”

Klich’s key midweek strike took his tally to three in two games with Boro, with the return of the ‘Klich is scoring goals’ song being music to his ears.

It is a ‘good song’ as the beaming Pole, who possessed a high-watt smile after the game on Teesside, admitted.

Goal-scoring midfielders from Ray Kennedy to David Platt and Frank Lampard have been at the fulcrum of feted campaigns of yore for many successful sides over the years and Klich’s potential on that front has been displayed periodically during his past few seasons at Elland Road.

A haul of five goals – he managed double figures last term – is modest given the wherewithal of the talented box-to-box player.

But there is time to rectify that at the key juncture of the season.

Goals have not been free-flowing for Leeds, but defensive order has been consistent, while contributions on the scoring front have been shared.

A combined total of 25 goals has arrived from the midfield and out wide from Gjanni Alioski, Jack Harrison, Pablo Hernandez, Klich, Kalvin Phillips, Stuart Dallas and Helder Costa. It is a commendable statistic that helps to compensate for the fact that the club’s top-scorer in Patrick Bamford has scored a moderate total of 12 at league level.

Listen to Klich and the team requires more collectively and individually.

“It is important. You see West Brom for example and the top-scorer gets eight or nine goals, while at Fulham, it is only (Aleksandar) Mitrovic who is scoring (regular) goals,” Klich continued.

“But at the end, it does not matter who is scoring goals. If I get 10, it will be a miracle! But let’s do it.”