Martin Keown has questioned Leeds United’s approach under Marcelo Bielsa.
Bielsa’s Leeds side have proved an entertaining addition to the Premier League, even if results have been mixed.
The Whites beat sixth-placed Aston Villa 3-0 at the end of last month, then suffered back-to-back 4-1 defeats against Leicester City and Crystal Palace, who sit first and eighth respectively.
And appearing as a guest on Talksport earlier on Friday, Keown singled out one Leeds player as evidence that Bielsa’s system may be flawed.
“I watch [the right-back, Luke] Ayling with great interest,” said the former Arsenal and England defender. “It doesn’t conform with what you’d expect a right-back to do.
“You don’t expect a right-back to go and press their left-back. Well, Ayling does that. But then he gets punished because [the Palace winger, Wilfried] Zaha runs into that area where Ayling has come out of.
“There’s these sorts of things where they go and press the ball and you think, well, OK, is this madness? Is genius close to madness? Because if I was being asked to do that I’d have to sit down with the boss after the game against Palace and say, I’m not really sure I completely believe in this, because I’m out on my feet here, as the Leeds players were in that match.
“It was fascinating to watch but actually, it wasn’t a winning formula.”
In defence of Leeds and Bielsa, they have been without the England international Kalvin Phillips in each of their last three matches.
And a shortage of natural replacements has seen a centre-back, Pascal Struijk, deployed in Phillips’ central midfield role.
The Leeds-born player is expected to be out until December, leaving the Whites to rue their failure to strengthen in the summer transfer window.
The Netherlands international Teun Koopmeiners and then Bayern Munich man Michael Cuisance were among those in whom the Yorkshire side were credited with an interest.
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