Javi Gracia and Darren Moore must turn psychologists to stop seasons imploding at Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday - Stuart Rayner

There are worrying signs of subsidence in the confidence of Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday.

The number of traffic jams in so many league tables is incredible.

Leeds, Wednesday, Sheffield United, Middlesbrough, Rotherham United, Huddersfield Town, Barnsley, Bradford City and Harrogate Town are keeping us guessing about what division they will be in next season.

None have looked as vulnerable as quickly as the first two.

When Leeds beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 16 days ago, it felt reassuring. The margin should have been greater but the Whites had won half their league matches under Javi Gracia and all their games against those involved in the great Premier League relegation bunfight of 2023.

They looked organised, exploited their width, and when problems popped up, quickly shut them down.

So how do you explain the next two matches? Or rather the second halves of those home games?

Defeats happen to teams at the wrong end of the table, but it was the manner of them which threatens to do lasting harm.

Conceding five to a Crystal Palace side struggling for goals was alarming, but could be discounted as a one-off had they not followed it with defending just as charitable to ship six to Liverpool.

The next three games – against Fulham, whose end-of-season party should have been weeks ago, then relegation rivals Leicester City and Bournemouth – look huge, as much in terms of the morale Leeds take into daunting and decisive games to come. They must batten down the hatches at Craven Cottage and build from there.

Because Wednesday are showing what can happen when a team's confidence goes. They kicked off at Barnsley 23 games unbeaten in League One, champions in waiting.

Even winning at Bristol Rovers for only the second time in nine games came with a gut-punch, rivals Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town coming from behind to claim late winners.

No team inspires hope by limping into the play-offs.

It is a huge test for manager Darren Moore, who was rightly forgiven for missing promotion last season but might not be twice. The talent in his squad is inarguable but he must become a master psychologist now.

Paul Heckingbottom has done that at Bramall Lane, seeing his Blades through choppy waters. Michael Duff has taken pressure off Barnsley with a similar attitude.

Neil Warnock and Mark Hughes’s pedigrees won trust at Huddersfield and Bradford respectively. Michael Carrick's first impression has done that at Middlesbrough.

Simon Weaver has Harrogate fighting and on Tuesday even from the kick-off.

Honesty has been the best policy for Matt Taylor, who had a tough act to follow at Rotherham.

Now is the big test of Gracia and Moore's crisis management.