Javi Gracia addresses 'very soft' decision and cure for key issue in FA Cup exit - YEP 28/2/23
Leeds United boss Javi Gracia was bitterly disappointed to exit the FA Cup at Fulham after toothless finishing and a ‘very soft' refereeing decision.
By Graham Smyth
The Whites created enough chances to win, hitting the
woodwork and having a pair of goals chalked off, only one of which was
debateable. With the score locked at 0-0 Georginio Rutter put the ball in the
Fulham net only for referee Chris Kavanagh to blow for a foul by Weston
McKennie. Willy Gnonto was later correctly flagged offside as he beat Rodak,
Rutter hit the post and Leeds squandered a number of promising chances. At the
other end João Palhinha and Manor Solomon produced wonderstrikes to settle the
tie.
“In this moment I am really disappointed because in my
opinion today we were a little bit unlucky, we created many chances, it's true we
are not clinical, we didn't finish with composure,” said Gracia.
"We scored a goal that was disallowed that was very,
very soft in my opinion. We were close to changing the dynamic of the game but
if you don't score you don't have any chance.”
Gracia says the only tonic for Leeds’ lack of killer
instinct in and around the box is to work on it and try to foster confidence
within the team, but he concedes positive results would help too.
“First try to work on it, every training session, try to
analyse why we didn't finish well,” he said.
"Confidence I think is important as well, it comes from
good results, like a circle. Work on it is the only thing you can do and try to
do it better the next time.”
In terms of Leeds’ general performance, Gracia appeared
pleased. They defended well for the most part, finding their only real moments
of hesitancy punished ruthlessly by those two wonderful long-distance efforts.
“I think in the first half we tried to press with three in
the beginning, in the second half we changed a little bit and put only three
players against three at the back, taking more risks but we had a good balance,”
he said.
"They didn't create many chances, they scored two great
goals and did really well but we were close to scoring one goal to change a
little bit of the dynamic. That's why I'm a little disappointed.”
