Jones offers an answer to Bielsa's spying tactics by revealing a change in strategy

Nathan Jones suggested that Marcelo Bielsa's open and honest press conference be thwarted as Stoke ended their long wait for a win and reduced Leeds's chances of promotion.

Bielsa spoke to the media on Wednesday with the aim of calming the turmoil caused by the fact that he was spying on opposition teams.

During a session that lasted over an hour, United 's head coach revealed that he had been studying all Luton games this season before Jones left his station in Stoke.

Instead of sticking to his tried and tested tactics, the Welshman threw a curved ball to Bielsa, changing his training to 3-5-2 and his bet paid off. Sam Clucas and Joe Allen's second-half goals helped Stoke win their first win since December 22.

"It has been well reported that Marcelo has watched 26 Luton games and two Stoke games, so he is well trained in our usual formation," Jones said.

"So we thought we might have to give him a surprise, because if he's as well trained as we are, they'll have plenty of time to work on it, it's a tough afternoon.

"We felt with the threats they received and gave us the best chance to win the match we needed to be tactical, and I thought about it."

Jones had a beginning of nightmare. A total loss to Brentford last weekend was followed by a home defeat by Shrewsbury in the FA Cup after losing a two-goal lead.

But he stood out brilliantly by taking the scalp leaders of the Sky Bet Championship.

"The contrast in a week is very, very big," said Jones.

"It's good to be out because I've never lost three straight games as a manager.

"Leeds is the best team in the league. If you're not, you're not leading the league, but it's the best team in the league.

"It's a good start. It was a real team performance. "

It was a miserable afternoon for Leeds, despite the last goal of the match for Ezgjan Alioski.

After receiving a second yellow card, United sent the center back Pontus Jansson late. Their position at the top of the table is really threatened.

"It was a match we could have won," said Bielsa.

"We had the ball and came easily to the last stretch of the field. Despite this, we could not get enough in the box.

"If you have the ball and can not reach the last stretch of the field, you can not have the opportunity to score.

"We were calm and were not afraid of offensive aspects of the opponent. But we did not have a solution. "

Bielsa insisted that not being able to watch the Stoke train before had no impact on the result.

"We can not say that we have ignored the characteristics of the adversary," he added. "We just did not take advantage of our possibilities.

"My badysis of the game may not be the right one.

"Our goal is to have good balls to attack because we usually hurt the opponent. Today we had many opportunities to attack but we did not hurt them.