Kyle Bartley discloses Leeds defence’s mantra before every home game

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Leeds United kept a crucial clean sheet during their vital Championship win over Sheffield Wednesday at Elland Road.

Leeds’ Kyle Bartley

Kyle Bartley has suggested that the Leeds defence’s mantra before every home game is to make sure that opponents do not come into their house and score, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports.

The Whites defence have been a revelation this term with the partnership between Pontus Jansson and Bartley being a key reason for their success, along with the performances of full-backs Luke Ayling, Charlie Taylor and Gaetano Berardi as well as goalkeeper Rob Green.

And after keeping their 12th Championship clean sheet of the season in the massively important victory over Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday – during which, they managed to keep Jordan Rhodes and Fernando Forestieri quiet – Bartley explained that the message the defence remind themselves of before every home game has been a key reason behind their success.

“We enjoy dominating and keeping clean sheets. We knew Jordan would provide us with a challenge but we dealt with that head on. They’re a really good team and they’ve spent a lot of money but we looked so solid,” he said, as reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Steven Fletcher of Sheffield Wednesday in action with Kyle Bartley of Leeds United

“It was massively important to get those points on the board. We speak before every game about this being our house. We don’t want anyone to come to our house and score goals against us. I think the team spirit really shone through.”

That positive mentality has clearly had a major impact on the squad as only three teams in the top 10 of the table have conceded fewer goals than Garry Monk’s men this term.

Pontus Jansson

And while it is obviously events at the other end of the pitch that often gets the Elland Road faithful rocking, the fact is that the likes of Bartley and Jansson have taken a lot of pressure off Chris Wood and the other attacking players by ensuring that they often only need to score once to secure a positive result.

And when the rest of the squad see the challenges that Jansson and Berardi especially seem to be putting in to prevent Green from being tested, they must surely be inspired to replicate those kind of effort levels further up the pitch.