Javi Gracia addresses 'very soft' decision and cure for key issue in FA Cup exit - YEP 28/2/23

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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.”

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