The club may be flying in the Championship, but there’s always room for improvement.
Leeds’ Luke Ayling clashes with Derby’s Richard Keogh as Will Hughes and Leeds’ Ronaldo Vieira look on
It’s been a long 13 years for Leeds United fans following their relegation from the Premier League, however, the Whites have got a superb chance of ending that this season.
Garry Monk’s Leeds are currently fourth in the table and playing some excellent football, but – as is the case with any team – there’s always ways things can get better. Here are five things Leeds need to work on, as if they do, they could well go up this year.
Find other ways of scoring goals
Leeds striker Chris Wood has been in tremendous form this season, with 24 Championship goals and counting – however, if something were to happen to Wood, you wonder how Leeds would cope. The New Zealand international has scored 46% of Leeds’ 52 league goals this season, while he’s been directly involved in 50% of them as he has two assists to his name as well. The simple equation is, ‘stop Wood, stop Leeds’, and while it’s working for now, Monk would greatly appreciate some of his other players chipping in with goals as well.
Josh Brownhill of Bristol City (C) in action with Pontus Jansson (L) and Kyle Bartley of Leeds United
Find some consistency away from home
Monk has turned Elland Road into something of a fortress, with Leeds winning 13 of their 20 matches on home soil, losing just four times. Away from home however, and things become very different. The Whites have won eight of their 18 away fixtures, which doesn’t sound awful, but they’ve lost seven on the road. That inconsistency doesn’t bode well ahead of the play-offs, and needs to be something ironed out – especially if Leeds make Wembley.
Tighten up away from home
In 20 matches at Elland Road, Leeds have conceded just 12 times. On their travels however, in 18 matches, they’ve conceded on 24 occasions. While it’s expected the home team take the game to you, that stat suggests that Leeds may be guilty of paying a little bit too much respect to their hosts. Going by how this season has gone, if Leeds stick to their gameplan, they are more than capable of winning games anywhere in the Championship – so this could be remedied by just sticking to what you know.
Liverpool’s Georginio Wijnaldum in action with Leeds’ Ronaldo Vieira
Stop being caught in possession so often
This can apply to any team, but it seems that Leeds have a tendency to lose the ball rather frequently when they’re put under mild pressure. Given the law of averages and how Leeds have fared this campaign, this isn’t something that’s hampering Monk’s men that much, but squeezing that extra few percentages out of the side can make a huge difference going into the final eight matches of the season.
Work on defending set-pieces
The biggest bug bear out of the list, and one that really needs to be amended. Out of the 36 goals Leeds have conceded this season, 15 of those have come from set-pieces – in other words, a whopping 41.6%. This is something that really needs working on, as Leeds fans would be heartbroken if all their hard work this campaign was undone by a simple set-piece at Wembley. Given Monk himself was a defender in his playing days, you’d feel he is quietly raging about that statistic, and will be doing all he can to try and rectify it.
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