Regular Vital Leeds contributor erni, gives us his fans view of the disappointing Carling Cup defeat to Leicester City.
Higgs 7 Man of the Match
Solid handling all night and made a couple of good stops especially a cracker to stop Steve Howard scoring in the second half. He was badly let down by defence.
Connolly 6
Solid defensively most of the game but his attacking play was poor and crossing even worse.
Bessone 3
This guy is a disaster on legs. I have never seen a defender sell himself so completely as he does.
In the space of five second half minutes, he got totally skinned three times, forcing Collins and Johnson to cover crossing chances. His own crossing and passing is so poor that I don`t expect him to find one of our players any more.
Bruce 5
Very shaky start, giving the opposition too much room and allowing them to get shots on target. Improved as the half went on but was caught out of position several times second hal, but at least kept trying. Is he the answer to Naylor`s faults ??? Not on this display.
Collins 5
Generally played well, first half and start of second, but the panic set in when they got on top and he resorted to desperate hoofs out of defence. Catastrophic error under little pressure for the penalty.
Howson 4
How can someone play so poorly 72hrs after having such a great game? Started full of energy but little guile, popped a great ball out to Gradel for a good shot on goal. Sadly, he showed little else and after a period of misplaced passes, he totally faded out of the game when Leicester got on top. Ultimate insult was to be subbed for Hughes.
Kilkenny 4 (all points from first half)
Started brightly and sprayed a few good passes around, (including a great touch on for Gradel that lead to the first goal). It was mixed with some poor stuff, but when the going got tough in the second half he capitulated and treated the ball like a hot potato, blaming everyone but himself for some awful passing.
Johnson 4
All effort and not much contribution. End to end attacking and covering for the hapless Bessone, but little quality. Looked totally out of form and gave away the first goal with a poor piece of defending, thinking he was Lionel Messi and trying to control a dropping ball in the penalty area, but allowed it bounce off his shin for them to score.
Gradel 7
A mixture of exciting football and frustrating judgement. Sent in a peach of a ball that Becchio should have buried but missed completely. A superb cross for Somma to score but too often ran into defenders losing the ball and rarely got his head up after beating a player.
Start of second half he beat three players to get into their area but instead of laying off to the unmarked Somma or Becchio he never looked up and got closed down by the fourth man.
Although way down on his performance against Wolves, if we were going to score it was going to come from him.
Somma 7
Scored again with a top class header and was always willing. Got little to no service from the wings and became isolated second half until watt came on. Can`t grumble at three goals in less than a game and a half but needs to improve his play off the ball.
Becchio 6
Missed a sitter first half from Gradel`s cross and scuffed and easy chance that was cleared off the lines after Gradel`s early second half run. Worked hard at holding the ball but not at his best with a very similar player at the side of him and in truth never looked dangerous.
Hughes (on for Howson second half) 4
Why Hughes when we were crying out for creativity in centre midfield? Really did nothing wrong but contributed nothing either, other than a couple of wayward crosses.
Watt 6 (Sub for Becchio)
Tried hard to inject some flair but didn`t really get into the game and looked a yard off the pace. Grayson says he hasn`t trained and was carrying an injury, so will let him off this one.
Summary
This was a poor display after the joy of Saturday. First half was stop start without any flow, but still with Leeds on top. Second half Leicester dominated us and we didn`t have the stomach for the rough stuff in the middle of the park. We missed Sam`s creative spark and Watts skill in the middle.
Bruce didn`t look the answer to Naylor`s failings and looks no better than Bromby.
Collins played well for about 65 minutes and then lost the plot (Morphing into Lubo) and Bessone never got the plot to start with!
The front two got no service other than fleeting bits from Gradel and like last year Howson and Kilkenny didn`t fancy a battle.
Grayson said Sam has an ankle injury, watt hasn`t trained and both Howson and Becchio played with injuries, so maybe a few excuses but if they have injuries why did they play at all?
I have kept my record of 100% 2-1 losses when doing a fans view, so I am DEFINATELY not doing it again.
I agree erni, maybe now is the time to let someone else have a go.
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