David Prutton has given his verdict on Leeds United’s hopes of winning the Championship play-offs.
Having missed out on a place in the automatic promotion spots to both Leicester City and Ipswich Town, Leeds now effectively have a second shot at an immediate return to the Premier League.
Leeds get their play-off campaign underway on Sunday afternoon as Daniel Farke leads his side to former club Norwich City for the first leg of an exciting looking tie.
Momentum is a word often when previewing the play-offs but due to their end to the season, Leeds do not have a lot of it right now, which has reduced confidence levels in the fanbase.
The Whites will have to make Championship history if they are to be promoted as no side has ever gone onto win the play-offs after losing four of their last six league matches.
Prutton says there is one thing Leeds can’t be described as for play-offs
OPTA’s supercomputer has Leeds as the favourites to win promotion this month, while Blackburn Rovers star Sammie Szmodics is among those also backing Farke’s side.
Szmodics believes Leeds have some of the best individual players in the league and while that is true, it does not always matter in pressurised situations like the play-offs.
Leeds have failed in all five of their attempts to be promoted via this route in their history and despite finishing on 90 points, David Prutton believes thinks these play-offs are as ‘wide open’ as it could be.
Prutton was discussing Leeds’ hopes in his latest column for the Yorkshire Evening Post and does not believe they can be called the ‘likeliest winners’ for various reasons.
He wrote: “Leeds are just about favourites for the play-offs but saying they are the ‘likeliest’ winners is possibly the wrong word to use.
“Form-wise, over the course of the season, you would say that by dint of statistics then what is literally the third-best team in the league would potentially be one of the favourites for the play-offs.
“But the people that are involved, the players that are involved, the calibre of player and the experience of the players involved for all four teams means that I think it’s as wide open as a neutral as you could possibly wish for it to be.
“Obviously as a Leeds fan you want to go into it as favourites but then does favourites create expectation which then creates pressure?”
Leeds form shouldn’t be major cause for concern
Obviously it would have been nice for Leeds to be entering the play-offs in some sort of form, but on the face of it, not a single one of the four sides are.
Both Southampton and West Brom ended runs of three consecutive defeats with their wins on the final day, while Norwich City ended the season without a win in three themselves.
While Leeds’ form is the worst, this is now a brand new competition and they should feel confident of heading into it having amassed the most points of the four teams.
Leeds were also just one of four sides to win at Carrow Road during the regular season and hopefully they can do it again.