Round pegs, round holes and fiery star could help Leeds United avoid the drop - David Prutton

We must remember that Leeds United have only had two games under Jesse Marsch.
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The positives that were taken from Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Leicester City can’t just be completely shot to pieces by what we saw in Thursday’s game against Aston Villa.

But Jesse has been brought in with this finite amount of games and that end point, that last bit, of quite literally getting to the end of the season and being the right side of the dotted line.

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Two games is a very small and short sample to assess whether Jesse has got the right things that are needed to get Leeds out of trouble.

FIERY: Nineteen-year-old forward Joe Gelhardt, above left, has still only had two Leeds United league starts and David Prutton wants that to change to help the Whites avoid the drop. Picture by Jonathan Gawthorpe.FIERY: Nineteen-year-old forward Joe Gelhardt, above left, has still only had two Leeds United league starts and David Prutton wants that to change to help the Whites avoid the drop. Picture by Jonathan Gawthorpe.
FIERY: Nineteen-year-old forward Joe Gelhardt, above left, has still only had two Leeds United league starts and David Prutton wants that to change to help the Whites avoid the drop. Picture by Jonathan Gawthorpe.

I am not saying that Leeds fans have to be pointlessly and hopelessly optimistic just to will the team on.

They will understand what they have seen and what they have been used to and this is now something that has been tweaked.

But it’s fundamental that as many people as possible stay onside just to try and get them over the line because performances like Thursday night’s do not help.

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Tomorrow’s game against Norwich is clearly huge and Leeds don’t have long to turn things around after the Villa reverse but this is not a brand new bunch of players that we are talking about.

It’s the same players, just under a slightly different management style but it’s not like Jesse is doing something completely different and has reinvented the wheel.

He has tried to make Leeds more solid and it looked like he had done that against Leicester to a degree.

That then got blown out of the water with the performance and the goals conceded on Thursday night.

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But if Leeds can’t go into the game against Norwich with confidence of getting all three points then they might as well give up now and it’s imperative that the negativity from the game on Thursday night is very quickly put to bed.

That makes it all sound very straightforward but Jesse has got one job this season now which is to keep Leeds in the Premier League and it’s not just his responsibility but that of the players as well.

There are naturally calls for changes to be made against Norwich such as starting Joe Gelhardt but how long have we been having that discussion for?

Along with his technical ability, there is a great fire about him that I have really enjoyed.

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Leeds fans have got used to watching players play out of their skins under Marcelo Bielsa, not just in their positions but in other positions – Stuart Dallas being one of them as well as Luke Ayling, Kalvin Phillips playing in defence as well as midfield and Dan James playing up front as well as out wide.

These players have shown versatility but maybe there’s a school of thought now to simplify things between now and the end of the season.

Have round pegs in round holes, be hard to break down and have no switching off when it comes to defensive responsibility and no more set pieces being relatively straightforward to get into the back of the net.

After that, the other huge bone of contention is creativity and have they got the creativity to solve the problem? Time will tell.

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Leeds have lost their last six but Norwich have lost their last five and they are absolutely beatable for Leeds.

Norwich will look at Leeds and think if they are having a wobbly day then we can take advantage of that but defensively they have shown they can be got at.

The volume of goals that Norwich have shipped in has been staggering.

Norwich are in a very similar position to Leeds with regards to fighting for their place in the Premier League

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Whether it’s going to be one for the neutral and a vintage Premier League football match we shall soon see but right now we are firmly in the territory of just getting points.

If you get a performance as well that’s a bonus but right now it’s just about points. It will be a case of just slugging your way out of it.

I still believe that Leeds can do it but you do sit there as a bystander and wonder how is it going to come about?

Time is absolutely of the essence now and everything that needs to happen and needs to go right from Leeds needs to happen now.

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