Leeds United: Monk's team changes in FA Cup were step too far - Ritchie

I have always done that with my sides when I have played teams from the lower leagues.

I am not having a go at Garry Monk for making 10 changes in Sunday’s fourth round loss at Sutton United and I respect his decisions.

But I always feel to go out to a lower league side like that is a little bit humiliating.

I can sympathise with some of the Premier League clubs – with the size of the squads that they have got that sometimes they have to play players that are not getting a game in the league to appease them as well and keep everybody happy.

But to play kids that are from the Academy, I’m not sure that’s the right way to go.

But the place United want to be is up in that Premier League and they’ve since gone and won at Blackburn so Garry’s been vindicated by that a little bit.

And to be quite honest, Garry held his hands up after the Sutton game and said he had made too many changes.

It’s good that he put his hands up and maybe in hindsight he shouldn’t have made that many changes.

But, if at the end of the season they get to the Premier League then things like that get forgotten and it’s probably been forgotten already because they beat Blackburn away which is a really good result.

Ewood Park is never an easy place to go to.

I know they are not doing fantastically well in the league but they are still in the FA Cup and playing Manchester United and they’ve beaten Newcastle twice.

You just have to take the rough with the smooth with the FA Cup exit at Sutton and you can’t blame the pitch either and I’m sure Garry wouldn’t do that.

But you’ve got to say that Sutton United were very good on the day.

They hardly gave Leeds a chance until late on in the game and have been superb throughout their Cup run.

Who would have expected that you would get Sutton United and Lincoln City into the fifth round of the Cup?

This week has also seen the closure of the January transfer window and there was obviously a lot of talk about Leeds not bringing in another striker and we know that forwards are very, very expensive.

Leeds have obviously looked at things and thought ‘are we going to get value for money in this window?’ Maybe not.

And with the two wide men brought in – Alfonso Pedraza and Modou Barrow – are they total wide men or can they play down the middle a bit as well?

I don’t really know too much about them. But the club must feel that they are okay and like they don’t want to waste money at this stage of the season as everything is going quite well.

But I can imagine fans being angry when you have got the likes of Sheffield Wednesday bringing in Jordan Rhodes.

I’ve got to say that in Andrea Radrizzani’s defence, the January transfer window came a bit too early for him. He is still feeling his way around the football club to know what situation he is in.

But the fans are probably thinking they brought somebody in, even somebody on loan from a Premier League club which has shown a little bit more willing and it might have appeased the fans a little bit because they are in a fantastic position and playing really well.

The window might have come a little bit too early for Leeds but maybe they could have gone a little bit further in their dealings.

But fans will look at it and think ‘well where are we in the pecking order if Sheffield Wednesday can go and do that?’ as there’s no doubt that Leeds United are a bigger football then Sheffield Wednesday.