A Newcastle United star has made a bold Leeds United claim.
Italian international Tonali lined up in Newcastle’s midfield for Saturday evening’s Premier League clash at Elland Road but in front of a new-look five-man defence featuring Kieran Trippier and Tino Livramento as wing backs.
Newcastle had previously operated with a back four but Tonali says the system was specifically changed for the weekend’s trip to Leeds and believes his men showed enough to deserve all three points.
Tonali, though, felt his men squandered particularly good opportunities after the break, declaring that his team must improve in order to get the points that the Italian felt his side warranted.
The midfielder also felt his team conceded “maybe nothing” chances-wise bar a couple of crosses and corners.
Speaking post match to Newcastle United’s official website, Tonali said: "It's difficult to say we are happy but we are happy because we put the work in to win this game, we worked a lot, we played well.
"We need to improve, this is normal because we deserved the three points today - especially the second half where we come back after the first half.
"We need to improve because I think in the last 20 minutes we had a lot of chances to score but I think we need to bring it for the 90 minutes because we played very well and I think this is the good way."
"We defended well and conceded maybe nothing”
Asked about his team’s change of system and whether that took a bit of getting used to, Tonali explained: "We worked together just for this, to change the system and this is difficult.
"We played all the pre-season and the first two games with four defenders, now we change.
"But we are ready for change every time and I think that with the five defenders we played very well.
"We defended well and conceded maybe nothing, just two crosses and some corner kicks but I think this is a good way for playing and for playing very well.
"We deserved three points today but this is football.
"Now we work for the other games."
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