Leeds United have suffered terribly with injuries in 2021/22 and it is undeniably a huge reason for the fact they are fighting for the lives at the bottom of the Premier League. However, it would be wrong to state that this has simply been bad luck, since Leeds have operated with the smallest squad in the division by choice.
When injuries have struck, they have badly lacked the quality to cover in order to compete in the top flight. Former Leeds goalkeeper, Paul Robinson has criticised the club's policy to keep the squad small and not add more quality, both in the summer and in January, when it was clear the team were badly struggling.
Speaking on BBC Football Daily, the ex-England international said: "You look at the recruitment side and there's two sides to this. A lot of people will say that it's [Marcelo] Bielsa and he wanted to work with a small squad but you look at Angus Kinnear's programme notes the week before the end of the January transfer window, almost bracing supporters for the fact that they weren't going to sign anybody. He said that they weren't going to sign anybody that they didn't feel were as good as the youngsters that they had and he didn't want it to be a detriment to their development.
