Steve McManaman has slammed Pascal Struijk for his defending during Leeds United’s 6-1 humbling of Liverpool on Monday night at Elland Road and how Mohamed Salah ‘thought it was Christmas’.
If Leeds fans thought that losing 5-1 to a relegation rival in Crystal Palace was bad enough, well, they managed to, somehow, make it worse.
That’s 11 conceded in their last two home games and Pascal Struijk has been one of a number of players that have played the entire 90 minutes during both fixtures.
It’s not good reading for Javi Gracia’s side, as they, during a season of real struggle, are now starting to produce their worst form of the campaign in their relegation fight.
All of this isn’t helped by the individual errors from players and former Liverpool midfielder Steve McManaman thinks Mohamed Salah would have thought it was Christmas given how Struijk defended his first goal of the night, as he told Premier League Productions (17/04/23 at 8:55 pm).
“It was a lovely goal and a great break from Liverpool,” said McManaman. “Typical Liverpool goals. Breaking really quickly. Winning the ball back. Everybody running forward.
“I was disappointed with Pascal Struijk. He should have followed Salah. When the ball does get played to Salah, if anything, it is played to him slightly later.
“But to allow the ball to go inside your body and for the defender not to be there, he must have thought it was Christmas. It falls onto his left foot and he just smashes it into the near post.”
ANOTHER LAST-DAY DRAMA?
The powers that be at Leeds United made it clear that they wouldn’t repeat the problems of last season.
Well, not only have they repeated it, but they are doing it in a worse fashion and after spending a few hundred million.
It’s crazy to think that, for the second season running, Leeds might have to go to the last day of the campaign to survive – those in the boardroom have to take serious responsibility for the club’s mess because many are lucky to still be in jobs given how many managers have been used during that period.
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