Leeds United goalkeeper Kiko Casilla has spoken to Spanish outlet Diario de Tarragona this week.
The outlet speaks of the player with quite a lot of affection, since he was born in Alcover, in the province of Tarragona.
Casilla has talked about his adaptation to English football, given this is the first international experience in the 32-year-old’s career.
“When you arrive, everything shocks you,” Casilla told Diario de Tarragona. “It’s a direct style of game, back and forth and very competitive games in which you know that you will hardly score. It’s a very demanding league, but fun.”
But most of the questions were really about Marcelo Bielsa. Casilla has talked about all the preparation they have before every game.
“We’re watching videos and training for many hours. Not only us players, but also their coaching staff. But when you see that everything is reflected in the matches and is going well, it’s fun.”
On his footwork, Casilla has claimed that he wasn’t really used to playing with his feet in Spain: “At Cartagena, I had played like that, but I hadn’t done for many years. At Madrid and Espanyol they also rely on the ball but not as clearly.”
But now at Leeds United, things have been pretty different: “Bielsa makes me participate a lot in the game. He asks me to take the ball and do a lot of defence help, and that forces me to be out of my area.”
Diario de Tarragona shows Casilla’s numbers saying he has conceded five goals and kept five clean sheets in nine matches for Leeds United this season so far, and that’s why he’s one of the ‘most influential’ goalkeepers in English football these days.
‘And fortunately, he’s from Alcover,’ they write.
