Tony Cascarino claimed Leeds United had gone backwards since the start of the new year as before that they looked certain to be automatically promoted.
The former Chelsea forward shared he believes the pressure got to the Whites, hence why they find themselves in the Championship play-offs and stated that playing at Elland Road had backfired for them towards the end of the season.
Cascarino implied that Marcelo Bielsa’s side looked drained due to the pressure and noted it was a massive blow for the Whites to lose to Wigan.
“Leeds certainly were absolutely an automatic promotion team up until the new year and from there they’ve gone backwards,” said Cascarino on talkSPORT (9:58am, Saturday May 11th).
“The pressure got to Leeds and the powerhouse of Elland Road being a fantastic arena to play football sort of backfired towards the end of the season when they lost to Wigan at home Georgie that was a massive blow to Leeds, I feel it sorta gotta drained out of the team at that time.”
OPINION
Elland Road is an asset to Leeds not a burden. Leeds players should be able to handle the pressure and if fans start getting on that back it shouldn’t cause them to crumble. You feel Cascarino is blaming the pressure being put on the team by fans inside Elland Road as being the reason why the club aren’t currently celebrating promotion. However that’s completely unfair. Leeds fans can be loud when voicing their displeasure but more often than not they have stuck by their team this season and kept cheering even when the odds have been stacked against them. This has helped Leeds achieve some memorable results at Elland Road and to imply the stadium is any form of a negative for the club is ludicrous. While Leeds’ form has dipped since the start of the year, it’s too easy to put it down to the pressure getting to them. Also if Cascarino thinks Leeds couldn’t handle the pressure of being promotion contenders, how is he expecting them to cope with the play-offs?