Redknapp slams Diego Llorente as Leeds United lose v Manchester United
Jamie Redknapp slammed Diego Llorente for his poor defending when Manchester United opened the scoring against Leeds United on Sunday.
Man United kickstarted their 3-2 win at Elland Road when Harry Maguire headed in from a corner-kick.
Llorente’s attempts to mark Maguire were nowhere near good enough and Redknapp made that clear at half-time.
“This is their first goal from a corner in 139 attempts so they’re doing a lap of honour around there at the moment,” said Redknapp on Sky Sports Premier League at half-time on Sunday.
“If you’re going to score a goal from a set-piece against any team, you just always think it’ll be Leeds.
“Llorente ends up not watching the ball, it’s poor defending.
“Look at him, his positional sense is all wrong, he tries to get a grip of Harry Maguire to try and compete with him.
“He doesn’t even jump to win it but it’s a good header from Harry’s point of view.”
Woeful
Where’s the Llorente that impressed so much in the second half of last season?
He’s been pretty woeful for most of this campaign, making mistakes and easily being beaten by opposition players.
Llorente’s role in both Maguire’s goal and Bruno Fernandes’ in the first half was embarrassing with the Spain international not doing anywhere near enough to stop both of them from happening.
Maguire can be hard to deal with in the air but you’ve seen the stat – Man United are by no means a class act when it comes to corner kicks.
Leeds’ defence has been all over the place for most of the season with the partnership of Llorente and Pascal Struijk not really impressing in the way many hoped it would.
Liam Cooper isn’t the most highly-rated of Leeds players – but surely a performance such as this highlights how much he’s missed?
It also shows how badly Leeds are lacking without Kalvin Phillips, who plugs up so many of the defensive holes that were exposed on Sunday.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay says this low-earning Leeds player cannot force his way out of the club in the summer.