Leeds United v Birmingham City: Lita’s stunner kills off Whites
By Phil Hay
The press conference leading up to Leeds United’s game against Birmingham City brought a subtle admission from Neil Warnock.
In discussing the importance of establishing a “plan b” at Elland Road, Warnock said he would “know what to do” if he was as an opposition manager preparing to play Leeds.
The comment was taken as meaning his squad is too limited or too predictable – and on days like Saturday, plainly beatable.v Beatable teams are rife in the Championship. The division was devoid of a perfect record after three weeks of the season and has been without an unbeaten club since its fourth weekend.
The undefeated sequence of seven games pieced together by Leeds before their match with Birmingham bucked that trend but a 1-0 loss inflicted by Leroy Lita did not arrive without warning.
It was the fate United avoided narrowly at Sheffield Wednesday and by a much finer margin against Charlton Athletic last Tuesday. Lita’s 76th-minute goal came and went without reply on Saturday, the glaring highlight on an afternoon of few and the sort of goal needed to break a side as belligerent and competitive as Warnock’s.
The well-travelled striker – signed by Birmingham on loan from Swansea City last month – ended a counter-attack with a shot hit more in hope than sense from 30 yards. He had Marlon King to his left and Chris Burke to his right as an outnumbered defence backed off nervously but Lita’s strike of the ball was vicious and precise. Paddy Kenny, at full stretch, grasped at it without a prayer.
United did likewise with what remained of the game, ruing a save by Birmingham goalkeeper Jack Butland six minutes before City scored. His classy, one-handed parry blocked a header from El-Hadji Diouf on Birmingham’s goalline, giving Butland time to clasp the rebound as a crowd of players gathered under his crossbar. Kenny had no such opportunity when Lita silenced a crowd who had already started to fear the worst.
The chance taken by Lita was nothing so much as clear-cut. In all, there were relatively few of those.
Rodolph Austin – recalled to Warnock’s line-up after scans on an ankle injury – forced Butland to stop the ball awkwardly with a leg after shooting from outside the box late in the first half, and Diouf saw an effort deflect into the crowd moments before Butland saved his header. An excessive reliance on Diouf’s vision was evident throughout. “We’d be in a state without him,” said Warnock afterwards.
Made to tick by the youthful energy and quick feet of Ravel Morrison and Nathan Redmond, two midfielders under the age of 20, Birmingham’s passing was sharper and more penetrating. They began to wear Leeds down in the build up to Lita’s goal and King missed an invitation to round Kenny and attack an empty net in the 73rd minute. Little by little, King’s hard running told on United’s defence and he almost rendered stoppage-time meaningless when his 88th-minute volley whipped over Kenny and smashed against the bar.
Warnock was less downbeat than the supporters who booed briefly at the final whistle, classing his side’s performance as a marked improvement from their witless draw with Charlton four days earlier, but his analysis of their loss to Birmingham invoked a familiar frustration: the planned takeover of Leeds which is intrinsically linked to the limitations of United’s squad and the players at Warnock’s disposal.
Senior figures at GFH Capital, the Dubai-firm which is “very close” to buying Leeds according to the statement released by both parties last week, were present at Elland Road again on Saturday; present for the umpteenth time this season.
Talks with United’s chairman and owner, Ken Bates, are understood to have continued in Monaco over the weekend, just as they have continued for five long months, and Warnock’s desire for a “little bit of class and a little bit of quality” – the traits he said Leeds were lacking against City – depends on an injection of funds secured through the sale of Leeds. Lita had been one of his targets, he revealed, but Birmingham did a deal that he could not. They were grateful for that at Elland Road.
“We need a bit of help now,” Warnock said. “A couple of players to come into the squad.
“Hopefully the takeover will come to the fore soon and we’ll be able to do something. I’ve been looking for weeks and there are two or three players I’d like to get but I don’t think we’ll manage it until the club sort everything out.
“I was after Leroy and he was one of the names I asked for on loan. But good luck to Birmingham, they got him.
“We’re lacking a little bit of class and a little bit of quality but there’s not a lot wrong if we could get two or three players in. It’s a matter of getting the signings over the line but that’s not easy.”
There is some scope for variation in United’s system and style – for instance Ryan Hall, their loanee from Southend who has renowned pace and an eye for goal.
At present, Warnock seems loath to trust in the winger’s fitness and while Hall made his debut in the final eight minutes on Saturday – thrown on with Aidan White in a vain attempt to rescue the game – he will be put through a mammoth training session in the days ahead.
Warnock admitted that the 24-year-old “really needs a pre-season” and with Hall ineligible for tomorrow’s League Cup tie against Southampton, United’s boss is also considering omitting him from the squad which will travel to Brighton on Friday. “We’re taking him out of everything this week,” Warnock said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get his fitness up to scratch.”
It is players like Hall and others available elsewhere who could bring unpredictability to the table at Elland Road. Birmingham found Warnock’s side easy to negate and only when Sam Byram picked out Diouf with a hanging cross on 70 minutes did City fall back on Butland’s ability.
The keeper’s save and Lita’s subsequent goal gave Birmingham manager Lee Clark the freedom to celebrate his 40th birthday as planned on Saturday evening.
“The beer will taste sweeter now,” Clark joked. “I’ve got the family down and they were hoping we’d get a result because they know what I’m like when we get beaten.
“They didn’t want a soppy-faced 40-year-old hanging around.”