Why Leeds United must play bungling Bellusci at Burnley this weekend- Lorimer

Lorimer, writing in the Yorkshire Evening Post, says the boss “should try and look at the bigger picture”.

Lorimer says he can understand the clamour for the player to be dropped, but he says: “I’m not going to defend the mistakes he’s made in the last two games. They’ve been costly and they’ve been stupid. We don’t need our centre-backs to look flash or to look cool. We need them to stop goals against us.

“Bellusci needs to accept that and he has to take responsibility for his actions. When his mistakes led to penalties I didn’t see him holding his hands up. I saw him blaming the referee. In reality it was impossible to argue with either decision.

He also has to learn his lessons. The overhead kick at Nottingham Forest was not so different to a similar blunder away at Nottingham Forest.

“You shouldn’t make that error twice.

“But in fairness to Bellusci, in general he’s been good recently. His all-round performances have been decent and, in my view, he’s been the best of our centre-backs. That’s not to say he can carry on making costly mistakes week after week because obviously that has to stop, but in the cold light of day, if you take Bellusci out of the team then you’re probably taking out our best centre-back.”

Lorimer says: “If it was down to me I’d be sticking with Bellusci and Liam Cooper in the centre of defence for now. I see that as the strongest partnership available to us – although I stand by my view that changes in that department are most certainly needed in the summer.

I like Sol Bamba and he’s good when he plays well, but it’s unfair to suggest that Bellusci’s made more mistakes than him this season or cost the club more goals. Bamba’s been a culprit too. I still remember the Huddersfield game, the 4-1 defeat,”