Leeds United played an attacking line-up against Wolverhampton Wanderers and paid the price.
After their impressive victory against Middlesbrough last weekend, it was easy for Leeds United boss Thomas Christiansen to opt for the same starting XI that secured a much needed 2-1 victory. But it was also the wrong call.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing in football, yet it did not take a genius to suggest playing such an attack-minded side against the best attackers in the league was not going to end well.
So it turned out, with Wolves winning 4-1 and Leeds back to square on in their pursuit of a renaissance.
The problem for Leeds is that playing Samu Saiz and Pablo Hernandez away from home has caused issues in the past, and so it proved again, with the Whites lacking the steel needed to keep a free-flowing Wolves team at bay.
The visitors’ hopes were not helped when Ronaldo Vieira was sent off, but then perhaps he should have been supported with an additional central midfielder, bringing Eunan O’Kane back in to shore up Leeds’ key area and offer more support both to the teenager and Kalvin Phillips and the Whites’ defence.
Christiansen needs to adapt to his opposition, picking a team that can get the best of any one opponent, not sticking with a side simply because it did the job last time.
In time he will learn what it takes to succeed in the English second tier; one can only hope that Leeds can benefit when the penny finally drops
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