Rowett, appointed on Friday to succeed the sacked Des Buckingham, must find quick solutions to turn the tide in favour of a U’s team with just one victory in 16 games.

Away at Leeds United, the team did fairly well to go into the break still in the game and just a goal down.

But three goals in a 16-minute spell saw United once again collapse, and below, we ask what key things will Rowett have taken away from Elland Road?

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Need for protection in midfield

U’s centre backs Elliott Moore and Ciaron Brown were far too exposed by either the midfield in front of them or from the wide areas.

Leeds were far too easily able to get to the edge of the penalty box and ask questions using their sharp interplay in tight areas.

One way to solve that might be to stick another midfielder in the engine room and make United a tougher nut to crack in the central areas of the pitch.

There will also surely be a temptation to find a destructive holding midfield player in next month’s transfer window.

The U’s need someone who can specialise in breaking up play and then retain possession.

Such players are not the easiest to find, but from the evidence at Elland Road, it’s a problem area.

The third goal started with the horror blind pass infield from Will Vaulks, but there was then a massive gap for Manor Solomon to run into and pick out Brenden Aaronson.

Errors proving costly

Going to Elland Road was never going to be easy. But United made their task far more difficult with poor errors and mistakes.

The opener came from a counter-attack as Przemyslaw Placheta was crowded out, and then Leeds broke up the pitch, with mistimed tackles and interceptions not winning the ball back.

Then Placheta was guilty of a horrible miss three minutes later, while the Vaulks mistake was touched upon above.

For the fourth goal, Mark Harris dawdled on the ball close to the centre circle and had it stolen from him by Ethan Ampadu.

Joel Piroe played through Solomon and Leeds duly grabbed their fourth.

Zero attempts on target

Despite the scoreline, and dominance with which it was achieved, the U’s had their moments.

The glaring miss from Placheta is the obvious one, but Ciaron Brown also crashed a header wide early in the second half.

Two goals scored in the last five matches tells its own story, and while the defensive unit needs protecting, Rowett also must find a way to get United firing in front of goal again.