Wasteful Luke Ayling was one weak point in win over Fulham
Leeds United defender Luke Ayling did not hit his usual high standards against Fulham and was very complacent throughout.
Firstly, it must be noted that Ayling has been superb in his debut Premier League season.
But because of that, we expect him to hit certain levels of performance in each game he plays.
And against Fulham he was far from his best, constantly losing possession and misplacing passes in a game where we struggled to control the ball at times.
Over the 90 minutes, the right-back lost the ball an astonishing 30 times, with a pass accuracy of 55% contributing to that, per SofaScore.
That is quite alarming, and it is difficult to pinpoint a reason why he was so sloppy.
Ayling of course thought he opened the scoring with a back-post header inside the first ten minutes, and perhaps the disappointment of the goal being disallowed led him to lose focus.
Alternatively, it is possible that the England talk that surrounded him this week got to his head a little bit.
Gareth Southgate is believed to be a fan of Ayling as he was reportedly considering a call-up for the full-back, per The Guardian.
Such praise is likely to affect any player, let alone one who has never even considered the prospect of representing England, like Ayling.
Fortunately, the 29-year-old still fulfilled his defensive duties and that was enough to secure the win.
But it was clear he was trying to do to much to impress when on the ball.
For example, per SofaScore he attempted eight long balls but found a teammate with just two of those.
He also failed to complete a single cross in his five attempts so a number of attacking moves broke down with him.
That is rare when it comes to Ayling but we expect him to come back stronger after the international break.
We accept this was an unusually bad performance and can allow him one given how consistent he has been recently.
In other Leeds United news, Ashley Williams has raved about an ‘exceptional’ Leeds star and he predicts big things for him.