Danny Mills has drawn comparisons between Marcelo Bielsa and Arsene Wenger after the Whites parted company with the Argentine head coach.
Bielsa's departure ended his three-and-a-half year tenure at Elland Road after guiding Leeds back to the Premier League and a ninth placed.
Pre-season expectations from pundits expected the Whites to compete for European football, but injuries to key members of the squad have left Leeds fighting for their Premier League status.
There have been plenty questions raised in recent weeks from pundits and fans alike, over Bielsa's refusal to alter his tactical approach.
Mills believes Bielsa's stubbornness is similar to that of Arsenal legend Wenger, which also cost him his job.
Speaking exclusively to Genting Casino, Mills said: "I think it has. Principles are amazing when they work – I look at Burnley and Sean Dyche for instance, they have a way of playing and they’re never going to be the most attractive team to watch, but they do what they do, and they’re always in the game.
"They rarely get battered – and they’re not going to change, Sean Dyche is not going to change his principles, and you admire that. But when you’ve got a team like Leeds that play in a unique way, and you’re missing at least three key players within that, to not change – to have that stubbornness about your principles, I think it then starts to border on a little bit naïve at times.
"The best managers in the world, the managers that win things adapt and change. They still have their principles, and they stick to them, but they tweak things. You cannot go man for man with Liverpool.
"You cannot go man for man with Manchester City because they are better than you, and they have better players than you, so you have to find a different way to win."
He continued: "Arsene Wenger was very similar. For years he was told he needed a goalkeeper, a centre half and a holding midfield player, and after all the success that he had – the more he got told you need to do this, the more he said no I’m not going to do it.
"I think there’s a little bit of that about Marcelo Bielsa. I admire him for sticking to his principles, but if you’re not winning games, or you’re not close to winning games – 60 goals they’ve conceded this season and West Ham is the only team that they’ve beaten in the top half of the table – if you’re only beating teams in and around you at the bottom, then something is not right.
"You have to make changes, no matter what your principles are. Sir Alex Ferguson would always make changes and would tweak his formation or his personnel. Mourinho would do it. Pep has done it on more than one occasion.
"Unless you are by far and away better than the opposition in every single player on the pitch, you have to adapt and you have to do something a little bit different. Marcelo Bielsa hasn’t done that. I think now you can see that once they go one or two down, coming back from that is nigh on impossible."
