After conspicuous failures at Portsmouth and Crystal Palace - offset by his role at Middlesbrough - the Terry Venables sheen might finally be wearing off at Leeds. The home defeat against Bolton, a team going into the match with a Premiership season-worst eight-game winless run, predictably led for calls for his dismissal. Although not all under his brief, Leeds have now let in four goals at home on five occasions over the past eleven months, one more than they suffered in the nine plus preceding Premiership seasons

Each area of the team has problems. After upsetting the manager pre-season, goalkeeper Martyn was benched in favour of the highly-touted Robinson. However, the latter has a losing record with the club with eleven wins, eight draws and fourteen losses since his debut in October 1998. In contrast, Martyn - who is still one shy of 100 total league victories with Leeds - has a 69-27-28 record over the same time-span. In defence, the loss of Ferdinand was clearly a major blow but playing Wilcox as a wing-back is clearly a sign of desperation. His last win as a starter dates back to January 200.1 In mid-field, apart from Batty's absence, the expensive Dacourt and Johnson are also overlooked in favour of McPhail (one assist and no goals in three seasons) and Barmby, a Venables favourite whose career peaked by the age of 25. Upfront, Kewell is having his best run for a long while but Smith's cautions continue to outpace his goals and Viduka's performances have led to him being substituted more often than not

However, all is not lost. The New Years's transfer window may give them a chance to unload some big-salaried players such as Batty and Martyn and it must not be forgotten that in January 2001 they were only five points from safety before they set off on a run which would see them garner the most points in that calendar year. Also, Fowler should have recovered from a hip operation to link up with Viduka. The latter also had an even slower start to last season, notching just 2 goals and 1 assist in his first 12 starts but finishing the season with a double-double after Fowler arrived to partner him

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