Garry Monk suggests what caused Leeds to suffer earlier in the season

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Leeds United have bounced back from a slow start to currently sit in the Championship play-off places.

Garry Monk has suggested that Leeds United’s history was causing the team to suffer during the early stages of the season, the Daily Mirror reports.

Despite their inability to finish in the top half of the Championship table over the last five years, Leeds’ start to the current campaign was deemed to be particularly disastrous.

The Whites went into their clash with Blackburn in September knowing that defeat would see them fall to the bottom of the table after securing just one league win in their first six games.

Leeds United manager Garry Monk

However, since then, Leeds have enjoyed a miraculous rise up the table and now sit in the play-off places, with their only defeats in all competitions since mid-October coming against Newcastle, Brighton and Liverpool.

And Monk has suggested that the weight of expectation was the main problem during the early weeks of the campaign.

“We were suffering at the start of the season from our history, and from the apprehension that goes with it,” he said, as reported by the Mirror.

“I spoke a lot with all the players, and we have done a lot of talking with the fans, to get that relationship right.

“This is a historic club, with a historic ground which generates a historic atmosphere. These young players need support and time to learn from their mistakes.”

As mentioned, Leeds have not registered a top half finish in the second tier since 2011 and have not reached the Championship play-offs since 2006. Nevertheless, they still feature in many people’s conversations when they discuss the sides that could be in the promotion picture at the start of the campaign, even if it is just a brief mention.

That added an additional amount of expectation that – based on their recent seasons – they had no right to meet. However, Monk appears to have now given the squad the belief that they can be the ones to write their own positive chapter in Leeds United’s history.