Paul Robinson slams Diego Llorente display in Leeds United defeat
We’re delighted to welcome former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson as our exclusive columnist as each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Leeds United...
Paul Robinson has slammed Diego Llorente for his performance as Leeds United lost to Manchester United at the weekend.
Llorente, 28, was substituted off at half-time but had a torrid first half in which he was easily beaten by Harry Maguire to a corner which the Man United defender scored from.
It hasn’t been the best of seasons for Llorente and he did little to prove to Robinson that he was rediscovering his form in the 4-2 loss at Elland Road on Sunday.
Although, the pundit does admit that Llorente wasn’t the only one who was defending badly.
“Llorente was poor, he was at fault for Harry Maguire’s goal,” Robinson told MOT Leeds News.
“His marking was poor, you can’t mark at a corner like that.
“And then you watch the following corner, both Llorente and [Pascal] Struijk could’ve had penalties potentially awarded against them for holding – and this is against a Manchester United side that hasn’t scored from a corner in 139 attempts.
“Leeds have got the worst record for conceding goals from corners so it wasn’t going to be a good combination.
“I thought Llorente and Struijk struggled with the movement of Manchester United with Sancho, Fernandes, Lingard and Ronaldo. There was also the interchange of play and they struggled with the movement.
“They got drawn out of position and that’s where playing one-v-one all over the field sometimes struggles because Leeds didn’t track runners and that’s where Man United exploited them.
“Defending all over the pitch wasn’t good enough.”
After being taken off at half-time against Man United, Marcelo Bielsa left Llorente out of his squad entirely against Liverpool on Wednesday night.
Leeds lost 6-0 in his absence with Luke Ayling and Struijk playing as the two centre-backs while Robin Koch was also missing due to a head injury.
In other Leeds United news, a double-page spread in a newspaper says that it’s the beginning of the end for this Elland Road man.