Leeds United: Going nowhere '“ United boss says he'll still be here for Boro showdown

Christiansen was forced to face fresh questions about his position as Whites head coach after Saturday’s disappointing 3-1 loss at Championship hosts Brentford condemned United to a seventh defeat from their last nine Championship games.

The Whites now sit tenth and three points adrift of the division’s play-off places, less than eight weeks after rising to the top of the table with a Tuesday night defeat of Birmingham City at Elland Road.

But chairman Andrea Radrizzani wants stability at Leeds and looks set to stand by Christiansen who admitted in the aftermath of Saturday’s defeat at Griffin Park that he fully expected to be in charge for the home clash with Middlesbrough after the international break.

Christiansen also believes his side will learn from the mistakes of a particularly sluggish first-half display at Brentford with the head coach insisting he was encouraged by United’s response in the second half.

Asked if he expected to still be in charge for Middlesbrough’s visit to Elland Road a week on Sunday, Christiansen said: “Yes.”

Analysing his side’s display at Brentford, he added: “We started late in several situations and they have a good team who play fast.

“But we need to learn from that and I believe that the lesson was learned.

He added: “We made two changes at half time and I will take with me the strength the team had to raise their game and come back in making the equaliser and also making the possibility to take the win.

“We were the team who were the best when they scored their second goal.”

Christiansen and Leeds have now returned to training at Thorp Arch this week though the Whites have several players on international duty including three players hopeful of taking their respective countries to next year’s World Cup.

Winger Stuart Dallas will be first in action with Northern Ireland hosting the first leg of their World Cup Qualifying play-off against Switzerland on Thursday before Sunday’s return leg in Basel.

Centre-back Pontus Jansson’s Sweden host the first leg of their World Cup Qualifying play-off against Italy on Friday might before the return leg in Milan on Monday evening.

Eunan O’Kane is also part of the Republic Of Ireland squad ahead of Saturday evening’s World Cup Qualifying play-off first leg in Denmark.

The return leg takes place on Tuesday evening.

In the meantime, Christiansen has vowed to fight on and “work hard” at Thorp Arch in readiness for Sunday’s clash with Boro.

“We will work hard to come back,” said the Dane.

“We need to work on the mentality and everything and we can analyse also especially the first half.

“And of course we have more time to prepare for the next game.”