Leeds news: Gaetano Berardi makes astonishing admission

Berardi - a right-back by trade - has mostly featured at left-back since joining Leeds from Sampdoria in the summer of 2015. 

“It’s not my normal position but like every year I try to do my best – every week and every session,” he said. 

“I know probably this team needs a better player than me but I just want to play and do my best every Saturday.”

Berardi’s tough-tackling has seen him become a cult hero at Elland Road and he tries to channel his aggression into giving him the edge against the opposition. 

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“I try to be aggressive,” he explained. “I try to stay a little bit calmer through the week but I keep my aggression for the Saturday.

“Maybe some players have other qualities. They have to use them. I use my qualities to be aggressive, to be tough on the pitch. Maybe not everyone needs to be like me.”

Leeds briefly topped the Championship table in the opening weeks of the season but a run of seven defeats in nine games raised question marks about their promotion hopes.

But they have stabilised in recent weeks winning four of their last six to climb to seventh. 

Berardi said: “Maybe we’re not playing so well like we were in the first games but after losing a lot of games we were looking for our confidence and our mentality.

“In the last few months we lost it. It was important to find it again. “It’s good to be there [close to the top six] and it’s good to know that the other teams have, not to be scared of us, but to know we are a good team.

“We didn’t play so good against Norwich but it was important to win the game. We need to kick on in this way. It’s the right way to play the game, with the right mentality.”