Noel Whelan has urged the Leeds United players to have a “long hard look” at themselves as he backed Thomas Christiansen to continue as manager.
United have lost six of their last seven league matches, culminating in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Brentford.
Christiansen’s side have slumped to 10th in the Championship table, just four points above 17th, and calls have begun among Leeds fans for the under-pressure manager to be axed.
BBC pundit Whelan, who covers all of the team’s matches for Radio Leeds, doesn’t agree Christiansen should go and has instead pointed the finger at the players.
When asked about whether Christiansen should stay or go, Whelan said, as shown on West Yorkshire Sport’s official Twitter account: “I think you’ve got to stick with him. I think the players have got to take a lot of blame for the performances as well. You can’t turn up and play for 45 minutes, we said that last season.
“They’ve [the players] got to have a long hard look at themselves. Are they mentally tough enough? Are they getting everything right? Are they putting enough into their training? Are they doing enough out there on the field? Because at the moment the results say ‘no’.
“At the moment we’re getting indifferent performances and below-par performances from individual players.”
? NOEL'S VERDICT: "It's not all the coach's fault; players need to do more." @NoelDavidWhelan & @garethjones25 on Brentford 3-1 Leeds #lufc pic.twitter.com/rr8y42ENIo
— BBC Sport West Yorkshire (@BBCWYS) November 4, 2017
OPINION
Ultimately, Christiansen’s future rests in the hands of Andrea Radrizzani, who has taken measured and popular steps to rebuild Leeds since taking sole ownership in May following the toxic reign of Massimo Cellino. No Leeds observer is in any doubt what Radrizzani’s predecessors’ response would be to the team’s current crisis. The plug would already have been pulled. The new owner shares a nationality with Cellino, but few of his traits and has been at pains on social media to stress that a long-term project is in its infancy. It would go against the grain to axe Christiansen now, but the Italian’s notable silence on social media on Saturday evening – in contrast to four days earlier – spoke volumes. His patience will eventually wear thin if results don’t change.