Yorkshire Evening Post 2/1/12
Whites serve up spineless show
By Phil Hay
Farewell to 2011, a year of promise that Leeds United contrived to waste. Few today could say what 2012 holds, and least of all Simon Grayson.
These are dangerous times for United’s manager with the club’s season losing its thread and his squad losing the plot. Fourth in the
Championship a month ago, Leeds entered the new year down in 10th after running aground at Barnsley.
Grayson’s future was the elephant in the room before Saturday’s derby in South Yorkshire but the fragility of his position became the topic of open discussion after Ricardo Vaz Te and Craig Davies inflicted Leeds’ third straight defeat with four goals between them at Oakwell.
United’s confidence in Grayson is a matter for their owner and his board but it is not difficult to imagine pensive faces in the corridors of Elland Road. December will go down as a pitiful month in which Leeds failed to average a point a game, and the comparative inconsistency of the rest of the Championship is no longer helping them. Grayson could ill afford defeat on Saturday, let alone one as spineless as the beating that ensued.
The crowd of 5,760 Leeds supporters who turned out at Oakwell chanted occasionally in support of him and aimed their harshest criticism at chairman Ken Bates. It is clear that something must change immediately, if only the club’s debilitating results.
Shambolic
“Embarrassing, shambolic,” said Grayson quietly after Vaz Te’s hat-trick and a second-half strike from Davies put Leeds to the sword.
It was, for 50 minutes, a repeat of their defeat to Derby County on Boxing Day – a scenario which could have been avoided with better finishing but a performance that Leeds have given too regularly.
Grayson’s team were in the game for 51 minutes but rarely dominant; occasionally creative but often found at arm’s length. He has never found goals so hard to come by in three years as boss and United’s disgraceful contribution to the second half did not deserve so much as Luciano Becchio’s injury-time header.
At a time of difficulty and arguably crisis, Grayson must have craved his strongest team to fight with. Saturday’s line-up was far from that, more makeshift than matter-of-course – Mika Vayrynen given his second league start and Ramon Nunez his fourth; Andy Keogh usurping Becchio and restoring United’s most productive partnership of the season.
Nunez had the most gaping void to fill and he tried like few around him, replacing Robert Snodgrass as the Scot recuperated from an operation to remove his appendix. Concern over Snodgrass’ well-being stifled any other emotion but the overnight loss of a match-winning asset was a withering blow at an uncomfortable moment.
In his final weeks as Leeds’ manager in 2008, Gary McAllister suffered among other problems from the loss to injury of Jermaine Beckford, a goalscorer who might have saved his bacon without a torn hamstring. Snodgrass’ illness stripped Grayson’s squad of its most creative player but the telling factor at Oakwell should have been Barnsley losing their own after 14 minutes.
Grayson employed Vayrynen, Danny Pugh and Michael Brown as a midfield three, perhaps with the intention of denying Jacob Butterfield the freedom and influence he experienced at Elland Road in November.
Butterfield showed a glimpse of his skill in the fourth minute by skipping out of the centre-circle, evading Darren O’Dea’s tackle and forcing Brown to bring him down with force. If that small victory belonged to Butterfield then the limp it left him with was apparently to Leeds’ advantage. Bruised and unable to run, he was substituted soon after.
More useful than Butterfield’s exit would have been a clinical finish from Keogh when the game’s first chance presented itself on eight minutes. Ross McCormack flicked Keogh into space six yards from goal but the striker dragged the ball in front of Luke Steele, showing the lack of killer instinct which might dissuade United from signing him permanently this month.
Nunez produced a better effort which dropped narrowly wide from 25 yards and Butterfield made way soon after, bringing Vaz Te off the bench. Within seconds, Vaz Te – the scorer of the first goal in Barnsley’s 2-1 win over Leeds on November 26 – snatched the rebound from Patrick Kisnorbo’s challenge on Craig Davies and cracked the ball beyond Andy Lonergan.
With his first meaningful touch, Vaz Te’s goal unpicked a promising start from Leeds. Barnsley’s nerves subsided and they pressed forward, forcing referee Neil Swarbrick to take close look when Jay McEveley’s cross smacked against the left arm of Aidan White inside United’s box. The decision was questionable at best.
Nunez attempted to turn the tide with another searching shot from long range but Steele dived to turn it away with both hands. Moments later, Davies showed up unmarked in front of Lonergan and tied himself in knots with a poor touch that allowed Kisnorbo and O’Dea to smother him. When O’Dea was called upon to halt another attack on 33 minutes, his foul on Matt Done earned him the match’s first booking.
A half of relatively few opportunities saw two more before the interval, with Davies shooting over United’s bar from close range and Keogh nodding Nunez’s cross into the arms of Steele. Grayson’s players were put through an impromptu warm-up before the start of the second half but they were caught cold again in the 51st minute.
Vaz Te found himself without a marker when Done floated a cheaply-conceded corner towards the back post, and he controlled the ball before lashing it through several bodies and past Lonergan. Keogh’s sliding block on the line merely helped it into the net.
For Leeds, Vaz Te’s second goal made a write-off of the derby and Davies curling finish on 61 minutes amid pathetic defending on the edge of the box was hardly necessary. The same was true of Vaz Te’s third which came 18 minutes from time after Paul Connolly missed a header on left wing and left the Portuguese front man careering towards a blameless Lonergan.
Becchio pulled a goal back at the death but his header was worthless. In that lonely spot of management, the technical area, Grayson watched and twitched as the clock ran down, back against the wall and seemingly abandoned by United’s players. His should not have been the only mirror occupied on Saturday night.
Whites serve up spineless show
By Phil Hay
Farewell to 2011, a year of promise that Leeds United contrived to waste. Few today could say what 2012 holds, and least of all Simon Grayson.
These are dangerous times for United’s manager with the club’s season losing its thread and his squad losing the plot. Fourth in the
Championship a month ago, Leeds entered the new year down in 10th after running aground at Barnsley.Grayson’s future was the elephant in the room before Saturday’s derby in South Yorkshire but the fragility of his position became the topic of open discussion after Ricardo Vaz Te and Craig Davies inflicted Leeds’ third straight defeat with four goals between them at Oakwell.
United’s confidence in Grayson is a matter for their owner and his board but it is not difficult to imagine pensive faces in the corridors of Elland Road. December will go down as a pitiful month in which Leeds failed to average a point a game, and the comparative inconsistency of the rest of the Championship is no longer helping them. Grayson could ill afford defeat on Saturday, let alone one as spineless as the beating that ensued.
The crowd of 5,760 Leeds supporters who turned out at Oakwell chanted occasionally in support of him and aimed their harshest criticism at chairman Ken Bates. It is clear that something must change immediately, if only the club’s debilitating results.
Shambolic
“Embarrassing, shambolic,” said Grayson quietly after Vaz Te’s hat-trick and a second-half strike from Davies put Leeds to the sword.
It was, for 50 minutes, a repeat of their defeat to Derby County on Boxing Day – a scenario which could have been avoided with better finishing but a performance that Leeds have given too regularly.
Grayson’s team were in the game for 51 minutes but rarely dominant; occasionally creative but often found at arm’s length. He has never found goals so hard to come by in three years as boss and United’s disgraceful contribution to the second half did not deserve so much as Luciano Becchio’s injury-time header.
At a time of difficulty and arguably crisis, Grayson must have craved his strongest team to fight with. Saturday’s line-up was far from that, more makeshift than matter-of-course – Mika Vayrynen given his second league start and Ramon Nunez his fourth; Andy Keogh usurping Becchio and restoring United’s most productive partnership of the season.
Nunez had the most gaping void to fill and he tried like few around him, replacing Robert Snodgrass as the Scot recuperated from an operation to remove his appendix. Concern over Snodgrass’ well-being stifled any other emotion but the overnight loss of a match-winning asset was a withering blow at an uncomfortable moment.
In his final weeks as Leeds’ manager in 2008, Gary McAllister suffered among other problems from the loss to injury of Jermaine Beckford, a goalscorer who might have saved his bacon without a torn hamstring. Snodgrass’ illness stripped Grayson’s squad of its most creative player but the telling factor at Oakwell should have been Barnsley losing their own after 14 minutes.
Grayson employed Vayrynen, Danny Pugh and Michael Brown as a midfield three, perhaps with the intention of denying Jacob Butterfield the freedom and influence he experienced at Elland Road in November.
Butterfield showed a glimpse of his skill in the fourth minute by skipping out of the centre-circle, evading Darren O’Dea’s tackle and forcing Brown to bring him down with force. If that small victory belonged to Butterfield then the limp it left him with was apparently to Leeds’ advantage. Bruised and unable to run, he was substituted soon after.
More useful than Butterfield’s exit would have been a clinical finish from Keogh when the game’s first chance presented itself on eight minutes. Ross McCormack flicked Keogh into space six yards from goal but the striker dragged the ball in front of Luke Steele, showing the lack of killer instinct which might dissuade United from signing him permanently this month.
Nunez produced a better effort which dropped narrowly wide from 25 yards and Butterfield made way soon after, bringing Vaz Te off the bench. Within seconds, Vaz Te – the scorer of the first goal in Barnsley’s 2-1 win over Leeds on November 26 – snatched the rebound from Patrick Kisnorbo’s challenge on Craig Davies and cracked the ball beyond Andy Lonergan.
With his first meaningful touch, Vaz Te’s goal unpicked a promising start from Leeds. Barnsley’s nerves subsided and they pressed forward, forcing referee Neil Swarbrick to take close look when Jay McEveley’s cross smacked against the left arm of Aidan White inside United’s box. The decision was questionable at best.
Nunez attempted to turn the tide with another searching shot from long range but Steele dived to turn it away with both hands. Moments later, Davies showed up unmarked in front of Lonergan and tied himself in knots with a poor touch that allowed Kisnorbo and O’Dea to smother him. When O’Dea was called upon to halt another attack on 33 minutes, his foul on Matt Done earned him the match’s first booking.
A half of relatively few opportunities saw two more before the interval, with Davies shooting over United’s bar from close range and Keogh nodding Nunez’s cross into the arms of Steele. Grayson’s players were put through an impromptu warm-up before the start of the second half but they were caught cold again in the 51st minute.
Vaz Te found himself without a marker when Done floated a cheaply-conceded corner towards the back post, and he controlled the ball before lashing it through several bodies and past Lonergan. Keogh’s sliding block on the line merely helped it into the net.
For Leeds, Vaz Te’s second goal made a write-off of the derby and Davies curling finish on 61 minutes amid pathetic defending on the edge of the box was hardly necessary. The same was true of Vaz Te’s third which came 18 minutes from time after Paul Connolly missed a header on left wing and left the Portuguese front man careering towards a blameless Lonergan.
Becchio pulled a goal back at the death but his header was worthless. In that lonely spot of management, the technical area, Grayson watched and twitched as the clock ran down, back against the wall and seemingly abandoned by United’s players. His should not have been the only mirror occupied on Saturday night.