Garry Monk was far from happy with his Leeds players against Rotherham United.
Leeds United manager Garry Monk has told Sky Sports that he was far from happy with how his side closed out Saturday’s 2-1 win over Rotherham United.
The Whites made the short trip to the New York Stadium having lost 2-0 to Newcastle United last weekend, and Monk’s men were searching for a victory to get back to winning ways against the Championship’s bottom club, who had picked up just one point in their previous ten games.
Leeds went in front when Charlie Taylor’s driving run opened up the Rotherham defence, and the left back laid the ball on a plate for Chris Wood to slot home from from inside the penalty are.
Leeds United’s Chris Wood celebrates scoring their first goal
Rotherham’s woes continued when Peter Odemwingie was given a straight red card for a nasty elbow on Leeds defender Liam Cooper, and the Whites took full advantage when Kemar Roofe picked out Souleymane Doukara, with the attacker’s low shot beating two defenders as well as goalkeeper Lee Camp to hand Leeds a 2-0 advantage.
With Leeds coasting to victory against 10 men, Monk’s men appeared to take their foot off the gas a little, and allowed Rotherham to get back into the game with a Richard Wood header, prompting a frantic finale.
Leeds United’s Souleymane Doukara scores the second goal
Rotherham produced a stirring late show and almost equalised after a goalmouth scramble, with Leeds players putting their bodies on the line to block shots before Dominic Ball blazed over the bar, as Leeds managed hang on for all three points.
After the final whistle, manager Garry Monk spoke to Sky Sports, and claimed he cannot be happy with how Leeds allowed ‘needless pressure’ on themselves by allowing complacency to creep into their performance.
Monk added that he told his players not to take their foot off the gas at half time, only to see them do just that, and then told them at full time that the end to the second half wasn’t acceptable.
Leeds manager Garry Monk
“Complacency crept in,” said Monk. “I spoke about it at half time with the players. I think, in the first 20 minutes, we were excellent. That’s how we’ve been in recent months, and that’s how we want to be, we were in total control. We were 2-0 up, there were down to 10 men, I warned the players at half time that complacency or taking our foot of the gas were the only ways they could cause us trouble, and that’s what we did.”
“We cannot be happy with that, not happy at all. I just told the players there at the end that it wasn’t acceptable with the standards that we set. We’re obviously happy with the three points, we’re obviously happy with the way we played in the first 20 minutes, but that needless pressure at the end was all caused by ourselves, so we have to address that and make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” he added.
What did you think of Leeds’ second half display against Rotherham?
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