Coach highlights areas for improvement for Leeds United and star attacker after Carabao Cup win - YEP 24/8/22

Luis Sinisterra starred as Leeds United eased past Barnsley in the Carabao Cup but the winger must fight his way into the Premier League line-up according to René Marić.

By Graham Smyth

Jesse Marsch's assistant saw plenty of room for improvement from the team in general after a 3-1 win that came courtesy of a Sinisterra wondergoal and Mateusz Klich's double, the reward for which is a trip to Wolves in the next round.

"I think in general the performance was was good, but we could have done better," said Marić.

"We were not as consistent over 90 minutes as we wanted to be. We always had some situations where we allowed the opposition to come into defensive third, things that we don't want to do.

"We had phases at the start of the second half, at the end of the second half, in the middle of the first half where we played more like what we want to do - pushing them into their half to keep them there and just be dominant in every phase."

Marsch rang the changes, nine in total from the side that beat Chelsea. Liam Cooper returned to play his first 45 minutes of the season after a summer Achilles injury, while Adam Forshaw and Mateusz Klich got starts in a team featuring several youngsters.

Marić believes Leeds are showing they have strength in depth this season.

"We trust the whole squad," he said.

"I think we have a really good squad to compete with every opponent and also within the squad to compete for the starting 11. And I think that it was a good performance, but again, we can improve on other things."

There were a number of good individual performances from starters and those who came off the bench, like Pascal Struijk and Marc Roca, but Sinisterra caught the eye with a hand in all three of the goals.

He whacked the first past Jack Walton from distance, won a penalty that Klich tucked away and sent in a cross that eventually led to the Pole’s second.

"He's a great player, he's a great guy," said Marić of the Colombian winger.

"We are very happy that he was able to reward himself for just his way back from the injury, the way he trains, the way he behaves.

"He's a great presence in the locker room."

Marić feels certain Leeds fans can expect a lot more from Sinisterra, but he will have to earn his chance to show it.

"There's a lot of come from him, but he still has to come to work," he said.

"Sometimes he's not as present in the game as he could be. And again, he shows glimpses of a very, very high potential.

"The whole squad is trying to compete and we're very happy that we're having to face these decisions in the next week, hopefully.

"Obviously we have other players at our disposal who played really well in the last game. He's for sure in that competition but we have a really good squad and it will be hard for him if the others keep it up."