da dobrowin： Following a 1-0 home defeat against Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town in September, Leeds United once again appeared to be in disarray after taking just four points from their opening six Championship matches, which had left them 22nd in the table.
da spicy bet： Rumours started flying around that yet another managerial change could be made by Massimo Cellino with yet another disappointing season in the pipeline, but Garry Monk avoided the chop and has turned his side’s fortunes around in the following six weeks.
The Whites are now ninth and just one point outside of the play-off positions, and there is a real feel-good factor around Elland Road at the moment – especially following their 2-0 home win against Burton Albion on Saturday.
That got us thinking here at Football FanCast. What has changed for Leeds in such a short space of time?
Here are four reasons why they have turned the corner…
Cellino is finally showing patience
Following that defeat to Huddersfield – their fourth defeat in six Championship matches – there were rumours Garry Monk was on the verge of the sack.
It wouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise if it had happened, based on Cellino’s history of firing managers.
However, where he might have wielded the axe in the past, he instead decided to keep the faith with his manager and gave him time to turn things around.
It is a decision that has paid off for the Italian.
Monk has settled on a preferred formation/starting XI
There were times early in the season when it seemed as though Monk was still unsure of his best starting XI and formation.
However, he has stuck with the 4-2-3-1 formation more recently and it appears to be the best fit for the players he has at his disposal.
Individuals such as Pablo Hernandez, Eunan O’Kane and Chris Wood are thriving, with the latter in especially good form after scoring his tenth goal of the season against Burton.
The centre-back partnership
Leeds have really struggled defensively in recent seasons. But in Kyle Bartley and Pontus Jansson, they finally seem to have a centre-back partnership that isn’t afraid to put their heads in where it hurts, yet also adhere to Monk’s style of passing it out from the back.
The only issue is that the duo are both only on loan at Elland Road. One of the club’s priorities will surely be to see if they can turn the temporary agreements into a permanent deals.
Elland Road is becoming a fortress again
The passion of the fans has never been questioned, but because of disputes with the owner and poor performances on the pitch, it felt as though Leeds were beginning to lose that identity and togetherness.
But positive showings and results are helping to fix those issues, and since that defeat to Huddersfield, they have won four and drawn one of their five Championship fixtures at home.
Leeds appear to be marching on together, once again.