Leeds United 2-1 Sunderland: Reaction from Elland Road

Phil Smith delivers his verdict as Leeds United seal a late win at Elland Road

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone, Phil here from Elland Road, West London. They've just fallen to a pretty heartbreaking

00:15late defeat against Leeds United. Pascal Struik scoring in stoppage time, his second goal

00:19of the game after being introduced. I think you have to give a lot of credit to Daniel

00:22Farke when you're chasing the game. It's not very often you bring on a centre-half, but

00:27the decision to bring Struik on was absolutely inspired in the end. I thought it was a bit

00:31of a game of two halves, really. I thought in the first half Leeds dominated possession

00:35and had most of the shots. They were never really in dangerous areas and I think some

00:38of them produced almost the perfect away performance. They defended resolutely, they kept Leeds'

00:42wingers in positions where they couldn't really hurt them and they definitely offered a threat

00:46on the counter. They moved the ball sharply, Isto's pace troubled them. Took his goal

00:50absolutely superbly, deserve so much credit for that. I thought the second half was a

00:54bit of a different story, to be honest. I thought that while Paterson didn't have too

00:57much to do, I thought Leeds were in total control of the game. I thought it was totally

01:00dominant and I didn't feel like Sunderland were deliberately keeping them away from the

01:04goal. I felt that they just couldn't hold possession. Leeds were just moving the ball

01:07too quickly and their press was just too good. They just didn't let Sunderland out. I think

01:12to be honest, in the second half at least, I think Sunderland had some increasingly tired

01:16legs and I thought there was a little bit of golfing class. I think we've seen there

01:19today why I think Leeds will go on to win the title and they are such a strong side

01:22here at home. Ultimately, I think the key thing was they had so many set-pieces through

01:28the first hour of the game and just did nothing with them. They were so poor in their delivery.

01:31Sunderland were winning all the first contacts and it was the decision to bring on Joe Rothwell.

01:35It was his first set-piece and he whipped it into that dangerous area for Sturwick and

01:39then again from a corner, Sunderland just not able to clear their lines. I think if

01:43you're looking for positives from a Sunderland perspective, I think we have to say Traheim

01:46is in excellent form and performed well up against Mano Salomon, such a dangerous player.

01:50I thought Dan Ballard was excellent again, so unlucky to end up on the lasing side.

01:54Played some good passes forward but defended his box so, so well. I thought the spirit

01:58was there from Sunderland. I actually thought after Leeds' first goal that they'd steadied

02:02a little bit. I thought Miander and Pavada brought some fresh legs. Pavada in particular

02:05looked lively but in the end, it was just that inability to keep the ball really and

02:09to get up the pitch that eventually cost them because Leeds, in the end, were able to win

02:12a set-piece. So I have to be honest, I think over the course of 90 minutes, although Paterson

02:16didn't have too many saves to make, I think you have to say that Leeds were the better

02:18team and probably the deserved winners. I'll be back when I've had a bit more time to think

02:22about it for On The Whistle tomorrow, so you can get your questions over to me on BlueSky

02:26or in the comments below this and I'll do my best to answer them. All your usual analysis

02:29is over on the Echo website.