Luke Ayling’s not done a lot to endear himself to new manager Javi Gracia with the Leeds United right-back struggling since his new contract extension.
The 31-year-old’s previous terms were due to expire at the end of this season but on 16 February, it was confirmed that he’s now set to remain at Elland Road until 2024.
However, Ayling’s done very little to show that he was deserving of that extension with his performances since then proving to be a massive PR showcase for Rasmus Kristensen to start at right-back.
Ayling’s latest shocker came against Brighton on Saturday (11 March).
Leeds did well to draw 2-2 with the in-form Seagulls at Elland Road but they could have easily picked up all three points had Ayling remembered how to defend.
Just look at his marking for Brighton’s first goal.
Ayling is highlighted in the image, courtesy of Match of the Day, below by the arrow and he’s a couple of yards away from Brighton’s man-of-the-moment Kaoru Mitoma.
When a deep cross comes into the back-post, Ayling is having to backpedal a lot and he ends up being beaten in the air by 5ft 10in Japanese attacker.
Embarrassing.
Mitoma heads the ball down to Alexis MacAllister, who’s completely unmarked in the six-yard box, to score Brighton’s opener.
All Ayling had to really do in this instance was drop a bit further back so he’s in line with his fellow defends, that would have put him on the front foot then and prevented the ridiculous backpedalling. Or he could have been touch-tight to Mitoma and marked him out of winning the header.
Jack Harrison’s own goal gave Brighton a 2-1 lead in the second half and yet again it was Ayling who could have done a lot better at dealing with Mitoma.
Ayling is pointed out at the top in the image above. He’s nowhere near Mitoma because he’s too focused on Mac Allister on the ball. But he doesn’t need to be, Robin Koch is closing and Marc Roca and Max Wober are both in positions where they can tuck in to cover Koch.
Mitoma then gets the ball and uses his acceleration to leave Ayling chasing shadows.
From pretty much a standing start, Mitoma is ahead of Ayling before he crossed into the box to force Harrison’s own goal.
Stats by WhoScored really highlight Ayling’s shocker, too.
He completed 82 per cent of his passes, which isn’t terrible. However, he only completed 23 passes in total and no Leeds outfield player who completed 90 minutes completed fewer.
Ayling was also dribbled past twice, failed with the one dribble he attempted, lost both of the two aerial duels he challenged for and had a wretched tackle success of just 33 per cent.
Ayling’s not Premier League quality – we’re not sure if he ever was.
He’s a senior player with a lot of sway in the dressing room so behind-the-scenes harmony is perhaps the only reason he’s playing right now.
But signing Kristensen from Red Bull Salzburg was meant to be a step away from our Championship past and into the present where we’re signing internationals from Champions League clubs.
More faith needs to be shown in Kristensen, in our opinion.
Ayling is letting Gracia down by not repaying the faith shown in him lately.
It’s time for a change – for good – at Leeds United in the summer.
