Thomas Christiansen assesses Laurens De Bock’s Leeds debut

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Laurens De Bock made his Leeds United debut during their heartbreaking Championship defeat.

Jed Wallace of Millwall and Laurens De Bock of Leeds United in action

Thomas Christiansen has told BBC Radio Leeds that he was pleased with Laurens De Bock’s performance on his Leeds debut and suggested that he was positive about how good the left-back could become.

In what was undoubtedly the most enthralling game in the Championship on Saturday, the Whites suffered an agonising defeat at home to Millwall, with the Lions scoring twice in the dying minutes to clinch a 4-3 win.

After a terrible start for Leeds – they went into the break 2-0 down and with only 10 men left on the pitch after Liam Cooper was dismissed – they responded in sensational fashion as they scored three times inside the first 20 minutes of the second-half to turn the game on its head before the stomach-churning climax to the contest.

A number of players actually received praise for their performances at Elland Road, especially for their parts in Leeds’ fightback. And Christiansen suggested that De Bock – who was making his debut after missing the trip to Ipswich Town last weekend – was one of the players who he was happy with.

“He was good. He was good. I find it very positive knowing that it’s his first game, he hasn’t trained a lot with the team so he did quite well,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.

The fact that De Bock did generally play well will be an encouraging sign for Leeds as left-back has been a problematic position for the club this season, with Gaetano Berardi, Vurnon Anita and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson all struggling in the role.

But with four goals conceded and a defeat to reflect upon, it seems unlikely that De Bock will be too pleased with his introduction to life in the Championship, even if his performance was encouraging.