Pascal Struijk reveals glee at proving Leeds United point and salutes triple Whites boost

Ex-Ajax youngster Struijk has made giant strides since joining the Whites in January 2018 and already has 79 Leeds United appearances to his name. Those outings have also come in a variety of positions, in both his natural centre-back role but more recently on the left side of defence and even as a holding midfielder under former boss Marcelo Bielsa.

Under Jesse Marsch, Struijk is currently the first port of call at left back and again lined up in the position for Friday night's mid-season break friendly against La Liga highflyers Real Sociedad at Elland Road. After 16 minutes, Struijk then showed another side to his game - goals - meeting Marc Roca's lay-off with a rasping first-time volley to draw the Whites level en route to a 2-1 success. After advertising his claims as a goals source, the defender now only hopes he will be set up more often upon being ready and waiting to strike on the edge of the box.

"I get in the position quite a lot but then they don't always pass the ball!" smiled Struijk to LUTV, reflecting on his Friday night corker. "I hope to prove to my teammates that I can do something with it!"

Struijk's strike proved the starting point for a Whites comeback that ended with Marsch's side recording a 2-1 victory against the side sat third in Spain's top division. The triumph also marked a third friendly win in succession for Leeds on the back of the previous Thursday's 2-1 victory against Spanish hosts Elche which followed another win in a friendly played behind closed doors. All that ultimately matters is United's first game back in the Premier League at home to Manchester City on Wednesday, December 28 but Struijk is feeling positive about United's current momentum.

"We have had three games now and we have won all of them so we are going in a positive direction," said Struijk, who made boss Louis van Gaal's provisional 39-man Netherlands World Cup squad before it was reduced. "Real Sociedad are a very good team. They are third in La Liga so for us it's important that we keep improving on the things that we need to improve on and then make sure that we keep winning."

Wednesday night's final friendly at home to AS Monaco is next - where 23-year-old Struijk is aiming for the same again and vowed that Leeds will do everything in their power to arrive in good shape to face City. Assessing the importance of continually increasing fitness levels, Struijk admitted: "Of course that is most important but that is what we also do in training every day. We work hard in training and we work hard on the pitch and then the games. Man City are a very good team so we will try to do our best and make sure we are as prepared as possible."