With Leeds United plummeting down the league table with indecent haste, the focus has been on manager Thomas Christiansen and whether he is up to the task of arresting the team’s decline.
As has so often happened with Leeds during a decade-and-a-half of tortuously navigating the lower leagues, early-season optimism has faded to give way to dark clouds.
Leeds’ defeat at Brentford on Saturday was their sixth in seven league matches, and their seventh from eight in all competitions, to leave them 10th in the table and just four points above 17th.
Prior to the Brentford game, the club’s chairman Andrea Radrizanni offered under-fire Christiansen his support in a stark contrast to the trigger-happy policy of his erratic predecessor Massimo Cellino.
But the players must also take their share of the blame for a wretched run in with only the brilliant Samuel Saiz has maintained high standards.
The Spanish maestro’s teammates have been nervy, error-prone and unable to deliver the goods when the need has been the greatest.
The manager has made some big calls this season, with Pontus Jansson and Felix Wiedwald paying the price for poor form, but now he must go one step further if he is to remain at the helm.
This Is Futbol has identified three players Christiansen must axe from the starting XI for the Championship clash against Middlesbrough immediately after the international break.
Click ‘2’ below to see the first player who must be dropped