The 'important' change Robin Koch had to make when he became a Leeds United player

The defender was one of a clutch of players who arrived at Elland Road in August 2020 to fortify the newly-promoted Whites as they embarked on their first Premier League campaign for sixteen years.

Like Leeds, Koch did not fully know what to expect from England's top flight, though he had experience of playing at the highest level of competition at Freiburg, the Bundesliga side who sold him to United for a reported fee of £13 million.

Life in the Premier League did not get off to an easy start for the German, who handled the ball in the fourth minute of his debut to gift Liverpool a penalty which Mohammed Salah converted, putting Leeds on the backfoot at the start of an extremely hectic 4-3 opening day defeat.

Premier League attackers such as Salah have proved especially challenging, Koch revealed, and have forced the centre-back to put weight on in order to keep up.

"In Germany I had the feeling that more emphasis is placed on ball possession," Koch said.

"Here, it's already the case that every team has strikers that are well built and very fast.