The pressure is on for Sam Allardyce and his Leeds United stars and just four games separate them from their fate, be that relegation into the Championship or another season at least in the Premier League.
As they’ve never been cast adrift, ‘Big Sam’ saving the club from the drop couldn’t be considered a ‘great escape’ in that sense, however, with the likes of Man City, Newcastle, West Ham and Tottenham to come, if Leeds do stay up it would still be a remarkable achievement.
Over the past few weeks their confidence and form has been shot to pieces and they’ve been on the end of some real hammerings.
Bringing in a replacement at this late stage, however knee jerk it may have seemed, was basically a necessity and it says much about how poorly Javi Gracia was in the position of manager.
In the situation they find themselves in, Leeds need all hands to the pump and to coin a phrase, everyone giving ‘110%.’ That goes for the backroom staff and the manager as well as the players.
Allardyce would almost certainly be adept at being able to adopt the siege mentality that’s required, however, there’s one player that hasn’t been putting it in of late, and it seems that the supporters have a bit of an issue with him because of that.
“When things aren’t going well, it seems like he’s not really somebody that rises to the challenge and that’s absolutely not what Leeds are going to settle for at the moment,” Dean Jones said to Give Me Sport.
“I know a lot of the fans have got a problem with McKennie. Not personally, but as a player in the team at the moment. I think they’d rather he wasn’t there.”
If anyone isn’t pulling their weight in the side, don’t be surprised to see them hauled out of the team for the remainder of the campaign.
McKennie was only signed on loan in January, per Sky Sports, and it’s believed that a permanent deal was all but agreed in the eventuality that the Elland Road outfit stayed up.
That may well have to be revised if the player doesn’t do his share of the donkey work.