OPINION
Leeds enjoyed an incredible start to the season, winning five and drawing two of their first seven games.
Even more impressively, they only conceded two goals in those games and both of those came in the opening 3-2 win against Bolton.
It looked like manager Thomas Christiansen’s move to replace last season’s goalkeeping hero Rob Green with Felix Wiedwald was going to pay off.
Leeds fans were sad to see Green go – and with good reason.
Despite being 37-years-old, Green played the full 90 minutes in all 46 of Leeds’ Championship games last season, keeping 15 clean sheets.
And one fan put it very well in a tweet after the latest defeat – a 3-0 loss to Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday.
https://twitter.com/pantsdanny/status/915147051712868352
However, Christiansen didn’t bring Wiedwald in just for the sake of bringing of a new keeper in.
Like Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, he wanted a sweeper-keeper who could distribute from the back.
And Wiedwald is good with his feet – as another fan hilariously pointed out.
Wiedwald is a class footballer but a shite goalkeeper. Get him in centre mid
— Dan (@lufc_dan) October 1, 2017
However, one thing Rob green did brilliantly was dominating his box and making his defence feel secure in front of him.
By contrast, Wiedwald is a continental-style keeper – he’s not commanding from crosses and he doesn’t dominate his box.
And the Leeds defence is starting to get jittery.
In their last three Championship games they’ve conceded eight goals and after the 3-0 defeat to Yorkshire rivals Wednesday, Christiansen admitted he is going to analyse Wiedwald’s performances.
Asked whether his performances were leading to a loss of confidence in the defence, he said: “This is something I will analyse but when we lose, we all lose.”
The Championship is a very different beast to European leagues or the Premier League.
It’s tough, physical, demanding and a lot of teams rely on set pieces and crosses – especially if they think they’ve spotted a weakness in their opponents.
And if the Leeds fans have spotted it – as this fan has – you can bet that Leeds’ opponents have.
And that’s going to put even more pressure on Wiedwald.
https://twitter.com/MikeyMangan1989/status/914460679515639809
It’s fair to say that Wiedwald deserves time to adapt and time to improve, but he hasn’t got long.
Leeds need to get their promotion campaign back on track and that needs to start at the back.