Former Leeds United star David Prutton thinks Pierre-Michel Lasogga should not shoulder all the blame for his recent lacklustre displays up front.

The striker, who joined Leeds from Hamburg on a season-long loan deal in the summer, has thus far scored five goals in 11 appearances in all competitions for the Yorkshire giants, in addition to providing four assists.




However, Lasogga has missed Leeds’ last two Championship games with injury, with Whites boss Thomas Christiansen playing Kemar Roofe as the sole striker.

Lasogga, whose last appearance for Leeds came in their 3-1 loss to Brentford before the international break earlier in the month, struggled in the game at Griffin Park.
 


But Prutton feels Lasogga alone was not at fault against the Bees as the German did not receive the desired support from his team-mates.

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“Up front, Pierre-Michel Lasogga has obviously missed the last couple of games and it’s a strange one because in one sense he gives you physical presence up front but in the other sense he doesn’t touch the ball”, Prutton wrote in his column in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

“Kemar Roofe has played the lone striker role in United’s last two games and I think someone like Roofe can definitely play the lone striker role if you can hold the ball up and bring other people into play but also run beyond the back four.

“As long as he has got the support then he is all right.

“What we saw in the Brentford game was Lasogga up front on his own with nobody around him.

“He wasn’t holding the ball up, he wasn’t getting any service and when he did, the ball didn’t stick, so it was like a perfect storm of what you don’t want from a lone striker.

“But the responsibility is as much on the rest of the players as it is on him because he can’t play on his own, yet if he is isolated then he has got to play by himself.

“So from a Leeds point of view they need to get support up there.”

Leeds, who were thumped 4-1 by Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday, are next up against Barnsley on Saturday and it appears unlikely Lasogga will be due to feature.

There has been confusion about his absence with team-mate Caleb Ekuban saying Lasogga is injured and out for two weeks, but head coach Christiansen claiming the striker is ill.