Yorkshire Evening Post 28/11/11
Honest Grayson holds hands up
Simon Grayson held his hands up to an unimpressive performance after Leeds United’s Yorkshire derby with Barnsley ended in a 2-1 defeat.
Grayson blamed a lack of spark and invention for United’s failure to record a third straight Championship victory at Elland Road on Saturday.
The United manager said his side had missed an opportunity to consolidate valuable away wins over Leicester City and Burnley and admitted Barnsley deserved three points from a low-key contest.
Leeds were forced to fight a two-goal deficit after Ricardo Vaz Te and Craig Davies scored in the first half, and Grayson’s players fell short despite Ross McCormack pulling them back into the game with an impressive free-kick on 54 minutes.
Grayson had attempted to heighten his team’s attacking threat by recalling Luciano Becchio for his first league start of the season but United mustered only six attempts on Barnsley’s goal and did not look like claiming an equaliser until injury-time when Ramon Nunez saw a close-range shot brilliantly parried by goalkeeper Luke Steele.
Grayson said: “It’s frustrating. When you look at the results we’ve had from two away games, you’d like to think you can build on them. But we didn’t play well enough.
“We started okay without making any reall opportunities and after that we slowed the play down too much. We didn’t play any one-touch football. It allowed Barnsley to get players behind the ball and we started forcing the issue and giving the ball away.
“Barnsley have got good enough players to hit you on the counter-attack and that was the problem – we were forcing the issue and not moving the ball quickly enough, That’s unusual for us. Movement is usually one of our strengths.
“Right throughout the game, and even after we scored our goal, we still didn’t work their goalkeeper or their back four enough. In terms of looking a threat, they were more of a threat than us and they worked our keeper more than we worked theirs. We had a lot of possession and that wasn’t a problem but we were too slow in our play.”
Vaz Te opened the scoring in the 28th minute with a finish which bounced into the ground and looped over keeper Alex McCarthy, and Leeds were punished again just before half-time when McCarthy parried a shot from Jacob Butterfield and watched Davies convert the rebound.
McCarthy was brought to Leeds on loan from Reading in the aftermath of Paul Rachubka’s personal humiliation in a 5-0 loss to Blackpool earlier this month, and Grayson said: “I’m not going to criticise Alex. He’s a good keeper and he’s done very well for us.
“With the first goal, Lloyd Sam slips and lets their lad in. The ball’s bobbled into the ground and gone over Alex. With the second, the ball’s swirling in the wind and it’s difficult for Alex to palm it away. We didn’t react well enough.
“These are goals we could have stopped and that does frustrate me but the overall performance was disappointing. We can play a lot better than that.”
McCormack’s goal was his 11th of the season but his first in eight games, beautifully converted from a position five yards outside Barnsley’s box. The striker had spoken before the game about a feeling of concern over his lengthy run without a goal, saying “you think about it every day and after every game when you don’t score.”
Grayson said: “It was a great free-kick and it’s what he needed. He needed a goal for his confidence.
“We said at half-time that if we got the next goal then we could get something out of the game but I still think that overall we could have been better in the final third. You can’t fault the players for having a go. We just didn’t have that spark or someone to get us out of trouble when we needed it.”
Becchio has so often been a source of telling goals for Leeds, scoring 20 last season, but he was peripheral for over an hour and was substituted by Grayson in the 68th minute.
The forward’s season has been affected by the hamstring operation he underwent in July, and Grayson said: “I don’t think he’s 100 per cent match-fit yet because he has not played enough football.
“Physically he’s very good and he trains every day but he needs a run of games.
“He did okay and we know he’s going to get better with games but that’ll obviously be dictated by me playing him.”
Honest Grayson holds hands up
Simon Grayson held his hands up to an unimpressive performance after Leeds United’s Yorkshire derby with Barnsley ended in a 2-1 defeat.
Grayson blamed a lack of spark and invention for United’s failure to record a third straight Championship victory at Elland Road on Saturday.
The United manager said his side had missed an opportunity to consolidate valuable away wins over Leicester City and Burnley and admitted Barnsley deserved three points from a low-key contest.
Leeds were forced to fight a two-goal deficit after Ricardo Vaz Te and Craig Davies scored in the first half, and Grayson’s players fell short despite Ross McCormack pulling them back into the game with an impressive free-kick on 54 minutes.
Grayson had attempted to heighten his team’s attacking threat by recalling Luciano Becchio for his first league start of the season but United mustered only six attempts on Barnsley’s goal and did not look like claiming an equaliser until injury-time when Ramon Nunez saw a close-range shot brilliantly parried by goalkeeper Luke Steele.
Grayson said: “It’s frustrating. When you look at the results we’ve had from two away games, you’d like to think you can build on them. But we didn’t play well enough.
“We started okay without making any reall opportunities and after that we slowed the play down too much. We didn’t play any one-touch football. It allowed Barnsley to get players behind the ball and we started forcing the issue and giving the ball away.
“Barnsley have got good enough players to hit you on the counter-attack and that was the problem – we were forcing the issue and not moving the ball quickly enough, That’s unusual for us. Movement is usually one of our strengths.
“Right throughout the game, and even after we scored our goal, we still didn’t work their goalkeeper or their back four enough. In terms of looking a threat, they were more of a threat than us and they worked our keeper more than we worked theirs. We had a lot of possession and that wasn’t a problem but we were too slow in our play.”
Vaz Te opened the scoring in the 28th minute with a finish which bounced into the ground and looped over keeper Alex McCarthy, and Leeds were punished again just before half-time when McCarthy parried a shot from Jacob Butterfield and watched Davies convert the rebound.
McCarthy was brought to Leeds on loan from Reading in the aftermath of Paul Rachubka’s personal humiliation in a 5-0 loss to Blackpool earlier this month, and Grayson said: “I’m not going to criticise Alex. He’s a good keeper and he’s done very well for us.
“With the first goal, Lloyd Sam slips and lets their lad in. The ball’s bobbled into the ground and gone over Alex. With the second, the ball’s swirling in the wind and it’s difficult for Alex to palm it away. We didn’t react well enough.
“These are goals we could have stopped and that does frustrate me but the overall performance was disappointing. We can play a lot better than that.”
McCormack’s goal was his 11th of the season but his first in eight games, beautifully converted from a position five yards outside Barnsley’s box. The striker had spoken before the game about a feeling of concern over his lengthy run without a goal, saying “you think about it every day and after every game when you don’t score.”
Grayson said: “It was a great free-kick and it’s what he needed. He needed a goal for his confidence.
“We said at half-time that if we got the next goal then we could get something out of the game but I still think that overall we could have been better in the final third. You can’t fault the players for having a go. We just didn’t have that spark or someone to get us out of trouble when we needed it.”
Becchio has so often been a source of telling goals for Leeds, scoring 20 last season, but he was peripheral for over an hour and was substituted by Grayson in the 68th minute.
The forward’s season has been affected by the hamstring operation he underwent in July, and Grayson said: “I don’t think he’s 100 per cent match-fit yet because he has not played enough football.
“Physically he’s very good and he trains every day but he needs a run of games.
“He did okay and we know he’s going to get better with games but that’ll obviously be dictated by me playing him.”