Another week, another Premier League club in crisis.
This week have a team who decided to go and lose 5-1 at home despite leading the game 1-0.
That’s right, Leeds United, it’s your turn to go under the microscope:
What’s the crisis?
Two points clear of the relegation zone isn’t the place a football team really wants to be 30 games into the season.
Going into the final eight games of the season in that precarious position with a team now utterly devoid of confidence having been beaten 5-1 by Crystal Palace at home, is a position that no team ever wants to be in.
In short: it’s bad.
In long: It’s very, very, very bad.
Why are they in crisis?
Conceding 54 goals in 30 games – the second most in the division behind Bournemouth – is the most explicit reason.
The sacking of the rather hopeless Jesse Marsch and hiring of Javi Gracia was supposed to stem the tidal wave of goals being shipped, but that hasn’t been the case at all. Judging by the fact that Leeds have conceded 17 goals in their last five games, it seems the problem has only gotten worse.
Premier League fixtures, table & top scorers
What can they do to rectify it?
So it’s way too late to buy a whole new defence, but it’s not too late to at least protect the back four a bit more.
It’s probably time to sacrifice one of the three in-behind Patrick Bamford in attack for another defensive midfielder and revert to a 4-3-3. A bit of tightening up defensively could be the difference between survival and relegation.
Credit: 90min.com
