Leeds squad are right behind Garry Monk, says Stuart Dallas

Image: Leeds United manager Garry Monk is the seventh head coach in two-and-a-half years at Elland Road

Leeds winger Stuart Dallas believes speculation over the future of head coach Garry Monk is "nonsense".

Monk is the seventh head coach in two-and-a-half years at Elland Road under owner Massimo Cellino and it has been reported the contentious Italian has already grown tired of the former Swansea boss.

Leeds secured their first home win of the season and first under Monk against bottom club Blackburn on Tuesday night to climb out of the Sky Bet Championship's bottom three.

"I don't read the newspapers to start off with, but obviously the fans have got a lot of expectation here," Dallas said after Kyle Bartley's late header had clinched Leeds' 2-1 midweek win.

Highlights of the Sky Bet Championship match between Leeds United and Blackburn Rovers.

"There's maybe people who have brought speculation about the manager, but it's nonsense really.

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"He's a good manager, we have bought into what he is doing, everybody is enjoying it and I can only see us getting better."

Monk himself labelled the visit of Blackburn a 'must-win' game after his side's home defeat to local rivals Huddersfield on Saturday.

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But Dallas, finding his feet again following his summer exertions with Northern Ireland at the Euro 2016 finals, dismissed early fears that Leeds could struggle this season.

"What are we? Six or seven games in?" he said. "To start talking about relegation is silly.

"Obviously we've been disappointed that we haven't been able to get results, but to talk about the relegation zone is silly.

Image: Stuart Dallas has backed manager Monk

"We can only take one game at a time and that is Cardiff on Saturday, but we have given ourselves a platform now.

"It's something that we haven't had this past couple of seasons, we haven't been on a three or four, five, six, seven winning streak and it's something we need to do."

Dallas accepts Leeds have not been good enough so far, but insists, given time, Monk can turn their fortunes around.

"We are disappointed with how we've started the season as well," he added.

"Obviously we haven't got as many points as we wanted, but that's just part of football.

"We have to keep doing what we believe in. The manager has us training on things that we believe in and we have all bought into it.

"At times it maybe doesn't show, but we have just got to be patient, keep moving the ball the way he wants us to do it and we'll create problems."

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