Whelan criticises Thomas Christiansen’s team selection in FA Cup tie

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Leeds United lost against Newport County in the FA Cup at the weekend.

Noel Whelan has criticised Leeds United head coach Thomas Christiansen on BBC Radio Leeds for not fielding a strong team against Newport County at the weekend.

Championship club Leeds suffered an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at the hands of League Two club Newport away from home at Rodney Parade in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon.

The West Yorkshire outfit actually took the lead in the tie after just nine minutes, but they conceded twice in the second half.

Leeds also ended the game with 10 men due to the sending-off of Samuel Saiz in the first minute of injury time.

Head coach Christiansen did not field his strongest team against Newport, with the likes of Andy Lonergan, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Jay-Roy Grot, Mateusz Klich and Hadi Sacko all starting.

Former Leeds striker Whelan believes that Christiansen should have deployed a strong team against Newport and has criticised the 44-year-old, who was appointed in his role as the club’s head coach in the summer of 2017.

Whelan told BBC Radio Leeds: “I think you should always play your best team, always play your best team. There’s a week.

“They are not playing Tuesday night. If they were playing Tuesday night in the Championship, fine, okay, fair enough, but you have got a full week to recover.”