Journalist Conor McGilligan has slammed Leeds United defender Diego Llorente for the role he played in a recent goal conceded by the Whites.
Despite ultimately winning their Friday night Premier League game thanks to goals from Jack Harrison, Rodrigo and a stoppage-time winner from Luke Ayling, Jesse Marsch’s men were 2-0 down at half-time.
Indeed, Wolves managed to open the scoring after Francisco Trincao set up Jonny, but the goal did not exactly paint Llorente in a good light as he failed to close down the space fast enough to prevent the cross from finding the goalscorer.
Talking about the moment on the One Leeds Fan Channel, McGilligan claimed that this sort of incident is becoming a little too familiar for the defender.
He said: “I thought Llorente was at fault for the first goal, in my opinion. You guys might think I’m being a bit harsh there.
“For me, he’s looking at Trincao, Jonny is right next to him. He’s got that open span to look at and he doesn’t think about closing down Jonny. It’s very slack.
“And I do think there is a fair few mistakes in his game at the minute.”
TIF Thoughts on Diego Llorente and Leeds…
As McGilligan alludes to, this isn’t the first time Llorente’s quality has been found wanting at a time of need. Indeed, back in February, Jamie Redknapp said on Sky Sports (via The Boot Room) that the Spaniard was beaten to the ball too easily by Harry Maguire for the opening goal in Leeds’ loss against Manchester United.
He said: “The player I really want to focus on is Llorente. Now, I can’t stand it.
“When the corner’s coming in, you have to obviously be able to see the ball and look at the man. But what Llorente does, there’s no excuse for it, you’ve got to be looking at the ball.
“As the corner comes in, he never once looks at the ball. All he’s looking at is Maguire. He’s focused so much on him. Not good enough.”
Should Diego Llorente be a regular starter for Leeds?
Yes
No
Taking that into account, it will perhaps be of concern for some supporters to see Llorente struggling once more this weekend, despite now playing under a new manager after Marcelo Bielsa was fired recently.
The most important thing in the short term was getting the three points. However, with relegation still a very real threat, the Leeds defence needs to tighten up quickly and Llorente could have a big role to play in that.
There’s little doubt that Marsch and others will want to see improvement from him in the final months of the season.
In other news: ‘In loads of pain’ – Phil Hay reveals another Leeds injury scare on top of four replaced