Leeds must forget the stakes and rekindle their confidence

Nerves and fear have spread through the Leeds United squad.

The Whites recorded their lowest points per game for a month this April and over the last five games, only Rotherham fared worse. From a club-record start to the year, Leeds have fallen apart as only they can.

"I'm not tempted to hammer the boys, we are playing a fantastic season with 90 points after 45 games," Daniel Farke said after Friday's capitulation in the capital against QPR.

The statistics are grim – seven goals conceded from an expected two over the last two matches, including conceding within eight minutes of the start from the first shot on target. But Farke is right to remind fans and players of an outstanding points tally which would normally have already seen them promoted automatically.

Sports psychologists' define a team-collapse as a combination of contagious poor-performance and emotions and key players faltering and blaming each other for mistakes. While the path out of bad form is visualising success and contagious positive emotions.

Leeds must forget the stakes and rekindle their confidence. As quickly as teams lose form, they can find it again, and they have the players to do it. And fans will play their part too, because belief is contagious.

Adonis Storr can be found at The Roaring Peacock