Leeds Utd: Consistency is crucial for the Whites

Article by Connor Law

Consistency has been a major issue for Leeds United over the past three agonising seasons in the Championship.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that we need a kind of spark to provide much needed fuel in order for us to get back to the top division which is famously known as the promise land.

The demand for quality, money, honesty and togetherness is what you would call a standard season for The Whites. The cycle is never ending. It is challenging to clinch promotion back to the Premier League but nothing is ever possible and with how the current, well-spirited squad that Brian McDermott has brought together I'm convinced we can sustain this recent form up until January.

If you take an interest in looking at the form tables Leeds find themselves 2nd after collecting 12 points from their last 6 games. The most disappointing result to come from those games was the 3-2 loss away from home against our struggling rivals Huddersfield. That was one game I expected us to win considering Huddersfield hotshot James Vaughan missed the game due to suspension.

It's the little things that well regarded manager Brian McDermott has done to help his side gain those 12 points in the last six games. Firstly, the more noticeable change was shifting Ross McCormack from midfield to his original position, up top. The Scottish Striker has bagged 8 goals in those last six games and has earned himself a call up to the National Scotland team after those sterling performances.

Another change Brian McDermott and his back room team implemented was the new formation. It was always inevitable that the diamond formation wasn't going to work with this squad; in parts of games they looked astray. The full backs were exposed on the majority of attacks performed by the opposition which led to a number of sloppy goals.

Brian McDermott introduced a new formation over the much-needed international break and the squad returned to action against Birmingham on the 20 October. 4-0 to Leeds the final score was, what a great spectacle. The new formation 5-3-2 consists of five defenders, three midfielders and two attackers. You could say it's five defenders when defending and five midfielders when attacking - something along those lines.

These evident changes have obviously been evaluated by McDermott and his back room team and luckily for them they've worked a treat.

At the home of Leeds United, Elland Road, Brian McDermott's men have earned 13 points from a possible 21; scoring 12 goals and conceding 6. Away from home we've picked up 10 points from a possible 24; scoring 10 goals and conceding 12. It's evident from those figures that we need to improve both our home and away form to charge into the play-off positions. These last 6 games have been very convincing from my point of view that we can be among the top six come January and hopefully we can add to the squad also.

Monitoring Reading's fourth consecutive season back from the Premier League, Brian McDermott managed to take them up as champions but they were sat 16th after 15 games into the Championship with what looked like a long season for the Royals. The next nine games on Reading were up to 5th after collecting 21 points from a possible 27. Hopefully the same will occur with us.

We're now 15 games into the Championship season and that's a quarter of the season gone in a flash. The best spell United have endured this season has been from the last 6 games. Consistency is key to any team that want success and for Leeds United it's a huge deal. So we'll see where we are come the New Year.

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