To many on the terrace at Elland Road, Helder Costa is enjoying his best spell in a Leeds United shirt.

Leeds brought the Portuguese winger in on a season-long loan back in the summer, with Marcelo Bielsa eager to link up with a player who had been impressive for Wolves as they stormed to the Championship title in 2017/18 and then established themselves in the top-flight.

In the coming months, Costa’s loan should become permanent for a fee around the £16m mark, with the winger signing a long-term contract at Elland Road. He appears to have won the faith of Bielsa (although Leeds had committed to this deal before the start of the season), but convincing the club’s entire fanbase has been a different story.

Signing from Wolves, who he struck 15 goals and 14 assists for over two seasons in the Championship, Leeds’ fans expected Costa to be the marquee signing that gave Bielsa’s side that extra quality required to win automatic promotion. Yet, Bielsa made a typical move of benching him for the season opener against Bristol City and didn’t hand him his first Championship start until the meeting with Charlton Athletic on September 28^th.

Since then, he’s started all but two Championship fixtures and has had involvement in every fixture across all competitions this season.

Admittedly, his stats in terms of goals and assists could make better reading, but that’s the case for this entire Leeds squad, who are far from productive in the final third despite their position at the top of the Championship table.

As our graphic shows, Costa has had six goal involvements this season in the Championship, whilst a further three (one goal and two assists) came in the League Cup back in August when Bielsa was drip-feeding the 26-year-old minutes.

Costa’s three goals in the Championship all came between November 30^th and December 29^th. His first in the league was a powerful left-footed shot in the rout over Middlesbrough, whilst the other strikes against Cardiff and Birmingham came on the break as Bielsa’s men ripped through open field with accurate play. Costa is performing lower than his xG (5.56), but as aforementioned, that’s not an uncommon theme throughout this Leeds side.

Costa’s primary job is to create and his three assists are reflected in his xA. Interestingly, if you begin to match up some of the goals Costa has scored and created, you see where his strength is: counter-attacking.

Eddie Nketiah’s winner in the 1-0 win over Brentford back in August came after a blistering run from Costa down the right; Jack Harrison’s crucial goal at Reading in November came after Costa provided the assist following a back-to-front break; whilst Pablo Hernandez benefitted from a cute ball from the Portuguese in the recent win over Hull City after Leeds had broke in numbers at the KCOM.

90 progressive runs – averaging 2.99 per 90 – show how Costa can often carry Bielsa’s side up the field with his pace, whilst 28 shot assists tell you that had Leeds been more clinical this season he could’ve been ahead of his xA rate with 37 Championship fixtures ticked off.

Costa’s dribble success is another huge plus at over 55% and matches up with fellow winger, Harrison, who is regarded to be enjoying a fine season by the bulk of Leeds’ fans. Additionally, attempting over 6.5 per 90 minutes only underlines the positive influence the winger looks to have for Bielsa week-on-week.

A crossing accuracy of only 25.8% does leave a lot to be desired, but it is worth considering that Patrick Bamford isn’t a towering forward dominating in the air and Leeds are often up against sides crowding the penalty area, making the job the wingers are tasked with that little bit more difficult.

Finally, it is only fair to look at some of the work Costa gets through without the ball, which is so important to how Bielsa wants Leeds to play. 121 recoveries (4.02 per 90) and 61 interceptions (2.03 per 90) are impressive stats for a player deemed to be a marquee signing in the summer and whatever criticism is levelled at Costa, nobody can deny the work he gets through up and down the right.

Perhaps Costa’s biggest obstacle at Leeds so far has been the nature of how the side play and were Leeds able to counter-attack regularly, the winger might’ve been more influential; it’s worth considering his best season with Wolves came in 2016/17 (10 goals and eight assists) when the side finished 15^th in the table and weren’t quite the force Nuno Santo turned them into. A return like two seasons ago looks unlikely given there are just nine fixtures remaining, and had Costa managed to hit those heights, he would’ve been an instant hit on the terrace at Elland Road.

Bielsa’s decision to hold him back might’ve hindered Costa slightly, but there’s no denying we are starting to see more from him now; his performance in the 4-0 victory over Hull City last month was exceptional and a real sign of the type of player Leeds could have their hands on long-term.

In many ways Costa’s first few months at Elland Road mirrors what we saw from Jack Harrison last season. He also endured a slow start before establishing himself in the team and showing promise towards the conclusion of 2018/19. Now, he’s key to Bielsa’s side and posting exceptional stats across the board.

Costa is getting there slowly and beginning to show some of that consistency ahead of the run-in, but his best spell might not come until the 2020/21 season, when he will be a permanent Leeds United player.