'Inaccurate' - Answer Leeds United must find, autos hope and £45m reminder: David Prutton

A win could have taken Leeds to within four points of second-placed Ipswich Town if they had lost at Watford. But the top two are streaking ahead compared to the points tallies of previous seasons and Leeds' tally would normally have them just about top of the league.

I know we are flying through the season but it's important to maintain focus and perspective. Sunderland have got some very good players. Jack Clarke is a good player. Patrick Roberts comes off the bench and he is a very good player. And I thought the phrase that came out of Daniel Farke's mouth about Sunderland parking the bus was just completely inaccurate.

To say that a team that is compact, solid and hard to break has parked the bus is quite frankly rubbish. If Leeds don't have the answers to teams that are going to defend in that type of way, rigidly with discipline then it's going to be a long season that's going to end in disappointment. They've got the players to break that type of stuff down.

Particularly in the second half, Leeds' best chance was a Joel Piroe toe poke which was quite easily cleared off the line. That's got nothing to do with Sunderland parking the bus and killing the game. That's got a lot to do with them defending well and Leeds not being able to offer up any solution to it. But you've got to take that game in isolation.Look at the game before with the form that Dan James was in. Obviously Crysencio Summerville is the top scorer. Georginio Rutter has had his goal involvements and Joel Piroe has too although of that four he is probably the one that we are still waiting to consistently take flight.

But sometimes you just have those games where you try and try and try and try and there is no lack of effort or endeavour. There never is with Leeds. That's one thing that this team this season absolutely kind of bursts forth with this application. But some days you're going to come across a team that is a match for you on the day which Sunderland were after winning against West Brom and then winning against Leeds.

That just reflects what we all kind of knew, which is that they are a bloody good team. They obviously wanted to get Tony Mowbray out for some reason, because the model doesn't work with him or he's not particularly a fan of the model, even though he works for younger players and helps develop them. But in Mike Dodds they have got a boss there or a coach there that has seen a lot of the team and he wasn't just thrust in at the deep end. He was there and he knew the players.

The continuity was there, the continuity and performance and results were there so don't get carried away. Don't think for one second that it was a case of wandering up to the Stadium of Light and turning them over. They were in the play-offs last year and it's not a team that is wet behind the ears. It's a team that has lost big players but maintained relatively decent form. The touch of class is to give them due respect and say we understand that's how it goes.

Leeds had won six of their last seven so you just say fair play Sunderland, you found a way to stop us, that may be a blueprint for other teams across the division and we have to be better in attack. But that's in terms of purely that isolated game because you can't say for one second that they have not been potent going forward and tough to beat.

They have been brilliant so I would like to think that the defeat is placed in perspective and I don't think there should be an overreaction to it. I just think that as ever with the Championship, there's a wonderful chance to put it right very quickly.

Leeds might be ten points off the top two but I still think it's a little too early to be calling automatic promotion a long shot. In Leicester and Ipswich, we are looking at two teams with the best start in the Championship in its history. But they're not completely unassailable. Leeds have beaten Leicester so they know how to do it. Now it's whether teams can pick up that baton and do them a favour which hasn't been the case so far.

I look at it from hopefully a slightly more neutral point of view given my position and profession but what Ipswich have done has been phenomenal. They are an amazing team to watch. They're a joyful team to watch. There's an expectation with Leeds, Leicester and Southampton but Ipswich are blowing other teams out of the water.

Leeds' challenge is to chase them down and not be kicking themselves come Easter for a sluggish start and for it always being nearly but not quite and always being maybe a victory away from bringing it down to say four points, five points, whatever and then things going the opposite way. If you are Ipswich and Leicester then you are buzzing about the ten and 11 point gap. If you are Leeds, it's not ideal but it's not insurmountable by any stretch.

If I'm being asked if the midweek defeat highlights the need for a no 10 or changes or additions in January then not really, no. From a goalscoring point of view, Leeds know exactly what they are doing and from a creation point of view they know exactly what they are doing. Yes, they've been slightly profligate at times.

At the start of the season, everyone is trying to get used to each other and get up to the speed of the championship and Leeds had a new boss to get used to. Leeds had to get used to all of these things/ But there is so much that is right about them and they have already had money spent on them.

There has been around £45m spent on the front two of Rutter and Piroe. We have spoken about this before under Marcelo Bielsa and him saying he doesn't want anything in January or not really kind of going to battle with the board. If the money is there and the right player is there then great. But I wouldn't try and force the issue by any stretch because when the team is fit and firing and plays well, it's one of the best in the Championship. You just get the odd aberration.

What we are seeing from Ipswich and Leicester is consistency above everything else. Ipswich are a great team to watch and they play football in a very attractive way. Leicester are slightly different because even their fans have grumbled about a plan B under Enzo Maresca but he has got the best record in the Championship after 21 games that anyone has ever seen!

If plan A works great then stick with plan A and I think broadly speaking Leeds plan does work. I am as guilty as the next person but using a term like plan A really does narrow down what you think that is. But you look at the way that Leeds attack and there's spontaneity to it.

Yes, they've got to work from a framework. But creation is by its very nature, instincts and spontaneity so the way that Dan, Summerville, Georgi and Joe play is a joy to watch when they are all on song. The fact that we are talking about Championship players which is what they are now means that there is that inherent consistency. If they were ultra consistent, they wouldn't be Championship players. That's just kind of the way he goes. So that's what the challenge is to this team - to stay fit and the form is kept collectively by pushing each other further on and Daniel knows that, make no mistake/

The reason that Daniel was brought in was because he knows how to get a team over the line and his Norwich sides always hit the front and stayed at the front or at least always in the top two I would like to say. So he knows what that's about and he'll be as energised and as enthused and as ambitious as the rest to hunt these top two down at the top.

I'd stick with what has worked so far in terms of team selection for today's visit of Coventry City. If we are talking about it in the vernacular of giving them another chance then there's a lot of money in the bank figuratively with this mob that are starting and that have been on this run.

And Tuesday night at Sunderland wasn't a poor performance. It was not quite hitting the heights and standard set and there is a difference. There was no sense of Sunderland feeling sorry for themselves and laying down.They were there with bells on to go toe to toe with Leeds and kudos to them for doing that. There were lots of learning curves in it and there is plenty that you could pick out from the goal itself.

There was Archie Gray getting a yellow card early doors and then really kind of showing maturity and composure to be able to stay in the game. We saw more from Djed Spence going forward in the second half I thought and that was his first start for Leeds. Therein lies another positive off the back of a disappointing result as you've got a player there that knows how to be part of a team that gets promoted. That is another big tick in a box.

Coventry seem to be slowly getting themselves into gear and they have had impressive results in recent weeks off the back of what was a tough start to the season for them. They beat a very poor Birmingham side but that recent defeat to Ipswich before that was preceded by back to back wins against Millwall and Plymouth and then a good point against Southampton at home.

Once again, Leeds are going to come up against a team that is tough to play against. Callum O'Hare is getting back to fitness and I think he is great. He is a wonderful player to watch. There's Ellis Simms and in Haji Wright there is a player there ostensibly to fill Viktor Gyökeres' boots which is tough because he is a super player. But there is enough in that team to keep Leeds very very honest.