In his own words: Midfielder Erhun Oztumer post-Leeds reaction

Wanderers exited the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening, losing 2-1 to Leeds United at Elland Road.

Recent signing Patrick Bamford opened the scoring for Marcelo Bielsa’s side, before Spaniard Samuel Saiz doubled their lead in the first half.

Whites midfielder Erhun Oztumer pulled one back early in the second half on debut, but Phil Parkinson’s men couldn’t find another before the final whistle.

After the game, the Turkish midfielder spoke to bwfc.co.uk and here are the talking points…

Thoughts on how the game panned… 

I think the game went very well. We knew that it would be a tough game. We knew they would have more of the ball.

I felt like we shut them out and kept very disciplined. We tried to get them on the counter attack, but I felt that we gave up their goals a bit too easily.

Second half, we came back, showed some fight and gave it a right go but it just wasn’t enough today.

On how the team performed considering the ten changes made 

It just felt normal. For me, all the players are fighting to play on Saturday, they’re trying to show what they can do. 

I enjoyed it, the players enjoyed it but we’re just not happy with the result.

On scoring on his debut for the club…

Always good to score, especially away to Leeds in a great stadium.

I am really happy and hopefully it will continue.

On wanting to build on this and score more goals this coming season…

I think outside the box is where I like to shoot from and trying to score as many goals as I can.

Creating as many goals as I can is important to make the team win.

On coming up against Championship opposition for the first time this season…

I felt very comfortable and the speed of the game was fine. 

Obviously, it was tougher out there playing against opposition like Leeds, but I embraced it and got stuck in. I couldn’t ask for anymore.

On trying to cement his place in the starting 11 for Reading at the weekend...

Hopefully I am in the gaffer’s mind for Saturday. I felt like I did well, as did many of the players.

I think he’s going to have a tough choice on Saturday but it’s up to him now, so we’ll see what happens.

On getting back into league action this weekend...

I felt the team performance tonight was pleasing despite the result.

At times we put them under pressure and nearly nicked a goal at the end.

The gaffer was pleased, as were the players and there are a lot of positives to take from that game into Reading.

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