Alan Smith has pinned his former side Leeds United’s struggles on the volume of injuries they have suffered from this season.
The Whites’ squad has been hit by a number of absences to key players this season, with the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Patrick Bamford, Liam Cooper and Luke Ayling all having suffered long-term injuries at different stages of the campaign.
During his time at Leeds, manager Marcelo Bielsa has always liked to keep a small, settled squad, which has ultimately been stretched to its absolute maximum this season.
Eight teenagers have already been handed their Premier League debuts this season, and its that lack of consistency week to week in starting XIs that Smith believes has affected Leeds the most this season.
Via quotes from Offers Bet, he said: “I just think it’s the injuries to key players. Marcelo has never been a manager who likes to change his players, even if they have played 30 odd games in the year, he will still try and play the same team.
“He likes that consistency. I think that’s one thing that has been against him this season, that he’s not been able to do that. And those injuries have been to a lot of their key players, their key performers who have been injured for long periods of time, and that’s been the biggest difficulty. And the second season is always tough.”
Despite their struggles this season, Smith was quick to praise the impact that Raphinha has had this season – he has scored eight goals and provided two assists.
Smith thinks with the likes of him in their ranks, they should have enough for survival but is worried that he could move on in the summer window.
“There has been talk of it and I’m not sure if other clubs are waiting for the summer, but Raphinha has done really well. He’s a really good player and I hope that he can make sure that he keeps us up before he does decide to move on.
“I think Leeds will be okay, and they’ve got enough. There are going to be times where it gets closer for a lot of teams, but I think they will be able to pick up enough points over time to stay up.”
