Noel Whelan has been heavily critical of Leeds United goalkeeper Felix Wiedwald following the defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.
The 27-year-old was unable to prevent the Whites suffering a 3-0 hammering away to their Yorkshire rivals on Sunday.
Gary Hooper (two) and Kieran Lee were on the scoresheet for the Owls as they bounced back from two consecutive defeats in the Championship.
Meanwhile, Thomas Christiansen’s side have lost their two matches before the international break and slipped down to fifth in the league table.
Wiedwald has cemented his place as the number one option at Elland Road following his summer arrival, but conceded three times against Wednesday during a poor display.
Whelan has destroyed the performance of the German goalkeeper and even labelled him a “coward” for his failure to demand the penalty area.
“I’ve never been overly-confident with him (Wiedwald) since he came to the club,” Whelan told BBC Radio Leeds. “There’s a weakness in that goalkeeper that just doesn’t fill me with confidence, that’s even when the ball’s on the ground and going back to him. His decision making, playing out from the back at times is woeful.
“He seems a bit of a coward, and for a goalkeeper, that’s the last thing you want. They’ve got to be brave, they’re usually big men who come out, knees up, come and claim the ball.
“It’s usually the centre-forwards who are cowering out of some of these challenges because they know they are going to come off second best. For the first goal, he should have been taking everything. There’s no reason it should’ve gone to Hooper.”
Whelan has played every minute of the Championship season so far and enjoyed a great run of six consecutive clean sheets earlier in the campaign.
However, the Leeds defence has become more fragile recently and he has shipped eight goals in the last three games.
He has struggled to an extent with the physical side of English football and fans are concerned over him moving forward.
OPINION
Leeds decided to allow Rob Green leave in the summer and Andy Lonergan is now the only senior competition to Wiedwald. That could turn out to be a big mistake and it seemed very strange at the time that the Whites allowed one of their outstanding performers in Green leave. Wiedwald did enjoy a brilliant start to his Leeds career, but in truth a lot of that was down to the great work of the back-line. They managed to limit the attempts on goal in the early stages of the season, but the goalkeeper’s frailties are now beginning to show. Wiedwald has 70 appearances under his belt in the Bundesliga and can certainly bounce back from his poor form, but will need to do so quickly or he could be dropped by Christiansen.