32-year-old’s time as a Leeds United starter now surely over after what happened on Saturday

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Leeds United strolled to a 4-1 victory over Huddersfield Town on Saturday to return to winning ways.

The Whites produced arguably their best 45 minutes of football under Daniel Farke as they raced into a 4-0 half-time lead thanks to two goals apiece from Crysencio Summerville and Dan James.

Following the midweek defeat at Stoke City, Farke opted to make four changes to his side for the visit of the Terriers, with Jamie Shackleton, Glen Kamara and the aforementioned Summerville and James all returning.

10 Leeds players were probably shoo-in starters heading into the match. The one exception was almost certainly at right-back, with no one having been able to nail down that role in Djed Spence’s absence.

Archie Gray had struggled in recent matches in that position, while in the meantime Shackleton and Luke Ayling have seen their minutes reduced considerably recently.

Ayling time as Leeds starter now over

It was widely anticipated that Ayling would be the man chosen to start ahead of Gray, but it was in fact Shackleton who was brought back into the side.

Excluding Spence, that now effectively leaves Ayling as third choice in Farke’s pecking order, a role which will only reduce even more once the Tottenham Hotspur loanee returns.

Ayling was brought on as a substitute on the hour mark with the game already wrapped up, as Farke opted to hand Sam Byram some time to rest the legs.

However, unfortunately for the 32-year-old, he again looked off the pace after his introduction from the bench, a worrying claim to make given how poor Huddersfield were, and how the game was set.

With all those factors in mind, Ayling’s time as a regular starter at Leeds is now all but over, and minutes as a substitute may even be hard to come by, once Spence is fit and firing.