Sky Sports pundit rips into ’embarrassing’ Leeds United situation and shares what Willy Gnonto has told him privately
Jermaine Beckford has hit out the “embarrassing” lack of Leeds United leadership recently and the decision to leave Willy Gnonto out of the line up.
The Whites’ form has disintegrated since half-time against Crystal Palace on 9 April and Javi Gracia’s selections have come under major scrutiny as a result, with the Italian teenager’s situation baffling above all but Beckford has seen serious issues in defence as well.
The Sky Sports pundit blasted the lack of leadership at the back for the two home thrashings to Palace and Liverpool, where Liam Cooper and Max Wober were both not playing, as “embarrassing” but revealed his and Gnonto’s bemusement at the situation in attack.
The former Elland Road striker told Sam Allardyce’s No Tippy Tappy Football podcast (13m): “One of the biggest issues at Leeds currently, the last four games especially, is there’s a couple of players in my opinion that should be playing in this situation.
“Wilfried Gnonto who is the young Italian kid, fantastic. He’s so positive, he’s so driven, he’s so direct with the ball, he gets the play up the field. He doesn’t mind defending and he’s got a little bit of a mean streak about him. He’s a fantastic, fantastic player.
“He’s not playing. He didn’t come off the bench the last couple of games.”
When Allardyce asked why he added: “I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve spoken to him directly about it and he doesn’t know. Or he does know and he’s just not giving [it to] me because of my position in the media.”
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It is an incredible situation for a player who has shown the sort of talent and impact this season that Gnonto has is largely sitting on the bench while his teammates struggle to stay in the Premier League.
It would be even more incredible at this stage, with the amount of focus on the issue from all angles, for there to be an explanation to it that hasn’t leaked out anywhere.
Gracia looked like a smart appointment, belatedly, when he came in and delivered the first Premier League win in months against Southampton on 25 February, but what he’s doing now is far less clear.
His side have gone from looking like they were marching towards safety with time to spare, to clinging on with no margin for error.
Some situations have been forced by injury, but sticking with Marc Roca and Weston McKennie in the middle of acres of space in midfield hasn’t worked, turning to Pascal Struijk when Max Wober was out proved to be a disaster, and the Gnonto snubbing has confounded everyone.
With Luis Sinisterra now ruled out for the season he may be forced to bring the Italian international in, but he thought Brenden Aaronson would be more use late against Leicester so who knows.
Wober is still out, which is a major blow, but Cooper has at least been installed to lift things slightly at the back.
Whatever the result come the end of the season the final weeks of this relegation battle are going to be remembered as a bizarre time, unless information comes out later to shed new light on the situation.
In other Leeds United news, the club have put an offer on the table to sign a player from Real Madrid this summer.