Leeds United manager Thomas Christiansen has admitted that his side "have to be much more aggressive" if they are to compete for promotion to the Premier League.

The Whites have seen their hopes of exiting the division falter over the past five days with back-to-back defeats against Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday.

Two goals from Gary Hooper and one from Kieran Lee condemned United to a 3-0 loss in Sunday's Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough, and Christiansen concedes that his players cannot afford to be so soft in the future.

"Well first we didn't score the goals when we had the possibilities," he told reporters. "We started the game very well, the first 20-25 minutes until the goal. We had good opportunities, had the ball, knew how to stop them, what we had worked on.

"But after the goal the team went down. The two first goals we were too passive and too soft in all the senses. If we want to compete in this league we have to be much more aggressive than we were in these situations."

Leeds, who led the division last week, now find themselves fifth ahead of their return to action against Reading on October 14.