The team's defense has crumbled in recent weeks and part of the reason is the absence of the club's No. 6
If you look closely, you can see the exact moment when Leeds' season truly went off the rails. It's gone so far off the rails, in fact, that Sam Allardyce has been brought in to try to fix it. In the Premier League, there's no bigger admission that things have spiraled out of control than a phone call to Big Sam.
That point, that moment, is when Leeds lost Tyler Adams, the U.S. men's national team midfield destroyer. Ever since Adams went down with a hamstring injury, things haven't been the same for Leeds, who now find themselves in very real danger of going down.
Defensively, Leeds are a disaster, which is the main reason they're in this position. Without their midfield shield in Adams, there's nothing stopping teams from taking shots at Leeds' brittle backline until it collapses.
Can Big Sam save them? We'll find out, but it's clear to see that the job would be significantly easier if Adams were involved.
Getty ImagesAdams' debut season
It didn't take too long for Adams to endear himself to Leeds fans.
The No. 6 was brought in from RB Leipzig last summer, an old favorite of Jesse Marsch dating back to their days with the New York Red Bulls. But any notion that Adams was not up to the task were put to bed relatively quickly as he rapidly became a vital part of Leeds' midfield.
Playing next to the more savvy-on-the-ball Marc Roca, Adams provided the defensive steel. He then went to the World Cup as the USMNT's captain, putting on a show against England, in particular, to silence any critics of his game.
By the time the hamstring problem struck in March, Adams had featured 26 times in all competitions for Leeds, proving vital under Marsch and his successor, Javi Gracia. That injury kept him out of the USMNT camp for the Nations League and, more importantly for Leeds, the home stretch of their season which has, thus far, been nothing short of a disaster.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesDefensive disasterclass
Any number of things can be blamed for Leeds' recent slide: instability at the top, struggles at striker, the manager, the schedule, whatever. But the main culprit, and yes there are several, is the team's defense, which has been brutally exposed in the weeks since Adams went down.
In the 24 games which Adams featured for Leeds before his injury, Leeds conceded 35 goals, an average of 1.45 per game. Not good at all, but certainly survivable in this relegation battle.
In the eight games since, though? 25 goals conceded, 3.125 per game. That, ladies and gentlemen, is relegation form. You can't give up three goals a game and survive. No chance.
Blowout losses to Arsenal and Liverpool are excusable, of course, and those two teams account for 10 of the 25 goals. As a manager or fan, you can write those off.
What you can't write off is the five shipped at home to Crystal Palace or the four conceded at Bournemouth. For those, there are no excuses. And it's those losses, as well as the recent late goal conceded in a draw with Leicester, that may just send Leeds down.
Getty ImagesWhat's gone wrong?
The short explanation? Leeds have no direct replacement for Adams. The long explanation? Adams had been masking deficiencies for some time.
Adams' sudden injury wasn't the lone cause of Leeds' defensive decline. Rather, it just exposed the fact that the Leeds defense just isn't very good.
Since their Premier League return in 2020-21, Leeds' defense has been right near the bottom of the Premier League in goals conceded. Last season, when Marsch came in to steady the ship after Marcelo Bielsa's departure, only Norwich (84 goals) conceded more than Leeds (79) as the club barely escaped relegation.
During the summer, knowing their defensive frailties, the club signed just one defender: Rasmus Kristensen. In January, they signed another, Max Wober, who to be fair, is probably the best of the bunch.
However, the Austrian's arrival was soon followed by Marsch's departure, and his recent absence through injury has done little to help the team's defensive issues.
Getty'Really poor defenders'
After the 6-1 loss to Liverpool, ' Jamie Carragher took aim at the club's backline, saying what basically everyone else had been thinking.
"They’ve got really poor defenders – really poor," he said. "They make big mistakes every time they play."
Kristensen hasn't made an impact since his arrival, while Bielsa holdovers Liam Cooper and Luke Ayling have struggled.
Pascal Struijk and Robin Koch, meanwhile, have done little to help matters. Neither have Roca and Weston McKennie, both of whom have been miscast as destroyers, totally upsetting the balance of Leeds' midfield.
The point is this: it isn't a coaching problem or a mentality problem or necessarily a tactical problem. The Leeds defense, by any measure, simply isn't any good, especially without Adams proving a much-needed buffer in front of them.