Javi Gracia proud despite Chelsea defeat as he drops injury return hint - YEP 4/3/23

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Leeds United boss Javi Gracia was proud of the attitude his players showed at Stamford Bridge despite their 1-0 defeat.

By Graham Smyth

The Whites recovered from a poor start to reach the break level but conceded from a corner eight minutes into the second half, Wesley Fofana evading the visitors’ marking to head over Illan Meslier and into the net.

Leeds made it nervy for the hosts, who had won only once in their previous 15 outings, and got into good positions without really troubling Kepa in the Chelsea goal. They mustered just two efforts on target during the 90 minutes and one of those was a stoppage time header from Meslier who joined the attack for a corner.

“I'm frustrated, I'm disappointed with the result but on the other hand after watching the attitude my players had today I can only say I'm proud of them,” said Gracia.

"Of course we need to improve many things but if we analyse the game, in the first 30 minutes the opponent was better, they dominated the game, the possession, they created two clear chances, [hitting] the crossbar and the save from Illan but after that moment I think we grew with the ball, with possession, creating as well some chances.

“The second half was something similar, they have their moments, a goal came from a corner kick and we tried to the end, the team showed character, attitude and that's it. It was the difference today, the corner kick, I can't say anything else.”

Gracia was without the injured Patrick Bamford so went with Georginio Rutter in the centre-forward role, Brenden Aaronson supporting the Frenchman as a second striker. Goals and the absence of a natural number nine are a concern for the head coach, but he has put the onus on his entire squad, not just the strikers he has available – there is hope that both Rodrigo and Bamford will return prior to the international break.

“We need goals like all teams, if you don't score you don't win,” he said.

"We have many options, some players are injured [but] in the next games I am sure we will have more options, strikers for example. The goals are not only about the strikers, all the team has to be ready to collaborate.

“I can tell you it's very difficult [without a nine] or whatever you want but I have to look for the solutions. After two Premier League games, we scored one goal and conceded one goal. We need to work on it and if we are not able to score too many goals then we need to be more compact and solid to concede less goals.”

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