Leeds United: Whites boss Milanic unhappy
Yorkshire Evening Post 18/10/14by Phil Hay
Darko Milanic admitted to a feeling of frustration after his run without a win as Leeds United head coach increased to four games during a 2-1 defeat at Rotherham United.
The Slovenian said he was “not happy with the situation” and aware of the pressure on him to deliver a victory after Rotherham overturned Mirco Antenucci’s first-half goal last night.
Antenucci opened the scoring at the New York Stadium with a 30th-minute strike, his third goal of the Championship season, and Leeds led at the interval after a slick performance in the first half.
But Rotherham dominated the early part of the second half and replied with strikes from Alex Revell and substitute Jonson Clarke-Harris, leaving Milanic to look to Tuesday’s game at Championship leaders Norwich City for his first win as boss.
The 46-year-old has been in charge of Leeds for a month – appointed on a two-year contract last month after quitting his job at Sturm Graz – but his first four fixtures have earned him only two points.
“It’s difficult,” he said. “I’m not happy with a situation where I haven’t won until now with Leeds United.
“But I think the players were 100 per cent in the game, we tried to play and we tried to play with good possession. In the second half it was difficult against a hard and aggressive home team.
“We played well to begin with. It was a good game. We controlled the match, we scored the goal, we had some good counter-attacks.
“But in the last few minutes of the first half they began with long balls from all areas and made a lot of pressure. We were prepared to play against that pressure but we made two mistakes and they scored the goals.
“We had some problems in midfield with pressure from them. But after they scored we had some good movement, we were dangerous.”
Brazilian midfielder Adryan initially appeared in the line-up announced by Leeds but was replaced at short notice by Lewis Cook, taking a seat on the bench.
Adryan appeared for his debut during a lively cameo in the final 27 minutes but failed to force an equaliser. Antenucci was denied by a post in the dying moments.
Asked why Adryan had not started, Milanic said; “You ask me a lot about Adryan.
“He’s part of the team, he has talent and great potential. It was my plan that I bring him on in the second half.”