By Danny Wright

22nd Feb, 2018 | 3:38pm

£1.5m Orta signing must be axed, Leeds should resort to Christiansen-esque XI v Brentford

COMMENT
Leeds United have wasted a lot of money on poor signings since Victor Orta was made director of football at Elland Road.
In Wednesday night’s 2-2 draw with Derby at Pride Park, it became apparent that the £1.5million spent on Laurens De Bock in the January transfer window was yet more resources wasted by the Leeds chief, who has far more misses than hits in the transfer market since arriving in West Yorkshire last May.
De Bock, 25, was an absolute liability at left-back and seemed completely unable to clear the ball or remain organised.
His self-confession that he struggles to concentrate in games is becoming more obvious with each game he plays.
Paul Heckingbottom now has a big decision to make on the defender, who was once called up for international duty with Belgium.
It’s pretty simple though, the former Barnsley manager must try to replicate how Thomas Christiansen managed to get Leeds on their best run of form of the season when they briefly topped the Championship standings.
That would mean that De Bock must be axed to the bench for the clash against Brentford on Saturday and Vurnon Anita is brought back into the starting XI at left-back.
At the height of Leeds’ dominant run in August and September, Anita was on the left and Luke Ayling was on the right, but with the ex-Bristol City ace out for the season, Gaetano Berardi should play at right-back.
Heckingbottom should use a 4-2-3-1 formation that clearly worked under Christiansen before injuries and suspensions started to play havoc.
Now almost everyone is fit and available, so using a similar line-up to the team that breezed to a 5-0 win over Burton in September with Samuel Saiz playing in the No 10 role behind Pierre-Michel Lasogga would be ideal for the Whites to get their bid for promotion back on track.
In other Leeds United news, fans annihilated this ‘garbage’ Whites player for his performance against Derby.