Whoever succeeded Garry Monk at Elland Road during the summer faced a tough task to get players who had agonisingly missed out on a play-off position last season – despite spending the majority of the campaign in the top six – confident and ready to go again this term.
However, that is exactly what Thomas Christiansen – albeit with a number of summer signings to help him – managed to do and towards the end of September the Whites were unbeaten, topping the Championship table.
Almost impassable in defence and finding the net often at the other end, the Elland Road faithful were beginning to believe that they could be mounting a serious promotion bid in order to try and secure a return to the Premier League for the first time since they were relegated in 2004.
However, ever since their first defeat of the season – a 1-0 loss against Millwall at The Den in September – something hasn’t been quite right and remarkably they have now lost seven of their last nine Championship fixtures.
It is probably already at a stage where it is more than just a blip or a dip in confidence, and it is becoming something of a serious problem seeing as they have dropped down to 10th position and are now 12 points adrift of the top two.
Leeds were really poor even prior to Liam Cooper’s red card just before half-time in the 3-1 defeat to Cardiff City in September, while they were abysmal and error-prone in a 3-0 defeat against an out of form Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough a few days later.
Three successive home defeats – all by the odd goal – may be considered unfortunate, especially as they were sandwiched with an impressive 3-0 win away at high-flying Bristol City.
But if everyone associated with the club was hoping that was to be a turning point and a confidence booster, they were to be sadly mistaken – four defeats in all competitions have followed.
[ad_pod ]
To have so many players off colour – even a strong figure like Pontus Jansson is a shadow of the player he was last season – seems to be more than strange or purely a coincidence, and it is beginning to suggest that Christiansen is perhaps out of his depth in trying to get Leeds out of their slump.
A visit from an in-form Middlesbrough – who have won their last three league fixtures to jump up to fifth – and former boss Garry Monk is hardly what the Yorkshire club need right now, and rather than being confident of rubbing a win in the face of the man that decided he didn’t want to stay during the summer, many Leeds fans will be expecting their team to be overturned on Sunday.
Should the Whites lose a fourth successive Championship fixture against Monk’s men with no marked improvement in performance, then owner Andrea Radrizzani has to act and wield the axe on the Dane – even if he may have had his hands tied in some respects.
Leeds showed earlier in the campaign that they have the squad to compete with the best teams in this division, and there must come a point when they realise that they can’t afford to waste another good opportunity. They are still in a position where they can save their promotion dream but that can quickly change.
While it may seem to be an act of short-termism and something that goes against Radrizzani’s methods and beliefs, results and performances have to be taken into account and eight defeats in 10 league games should be a step too far for a man who is new to this level.
Both the owner and Christiansen may feel that they can sort the issues out during the January transfer window, but Leeds have 10 matches still to play until they reach that stage and they will have just 20 left of the campaign after January 1st.
It would be an almost impossible task to turn their fortunes around if the Whites find themselves further adrift, and they need a run of positive results before that stage to at least stay in contention.
A loss against Middlesbrough on Sunday will be a huge blow for the supporters for many reasons. Radrizzani would have to act to get the feel-good factor back at Elland Road going into the busy festive period by sacking Christiansen and bringing in someone who can reinvigorate the players.