Handed the task of untwining what was left by Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch, Javi Gracia briefly looked the man to arrest Leeds’s decline, only for his team to concede a familiar deluge of goals. Letting in 18 goals over five games in April for a return of three points may soon be enough to send him the same way as his predecessors.
Two highly preventable Fulham goals, goalkeeping errors from Illan Meslier handing Harry Wilson and Andreas Pereira their prizes, left Leeds with a nervous weekend watch of their relegation rivals’s fortunes. Until a late flurry, they looked incapable of stopping the rot.
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“It was not enough,” said Gracia. “We had the balance but they scored two goals. After that it was hard to manage for us.”
As Leeds look down, Marco Silva – like Gracia, a graduate of Watford’s managerial meat grinder – celebrated a second successive win and the comfort of ninth place. “Definitely well deserved,” he said. “We are proud of ninth but we are always looking at the next game.”
Having served out his two-match ban for the incident at Old Trafford that robbed him of Aleksandar Mitrovic’s services until the last week of the season, Silva directed matters from the dugout. The hulking Serbian goal machine sat in the old Cottage pavilion near Fulham’s owner, Shahid Khan. On the pitch,a fluid attacking lineup comprising a central Bobby Decordova-Reid flanked by Willian and Wilson eventually prevailed.
Leeds, in an away kit featuring bile-orange shorts, looked to have more attacking talent on their bench – Patrick Bamford, Luis Sinisterra and Wilfried Gnonto – than in the starting XI. All three would make a contribution to the failed rescue mission that only began when all was already lost.
A flowing second half with panicky final moments followed the limited highlights of an opening 45 minutes in which Fulham lacked a focal point and Leeds took suspiciously long over set-pieces. Their conservatism was understandable after losing all five previous visits to London this season. A point would have been useful, and a first clean sheet since 25 Februry welcome.
Fulham lay in wait for the mistakes that Leeds make so often. As close to an “on the beach” team as any in the Premier League, perhaps more jolly-boating than Ayia Napa, they were far more focused in the second half. Willian, seizing on a quick free-kick, created the first decent – and portentous – opening, his shot deflected wide when Meslier looked to be struggling.
It took a fine last-ditch Liam Cooper tackle to stop Wilson slaloming through. Seconds later the Welsh winger made Fulham’s breakthrough. Marc Roca played a misguided cross-field pass straight to a galloping Antonee Robinson before Willian was sent down the left. Meslier succeeded only in dropping the ball at Wilson’s feet. “It just sat up nicely and I could get a nice connection on it,” said the goalscorer.
Leeds’s response was to lift their aggression and the away fans began, in modern football fashion, to call for the head of their sporting director rather than the managers or players. Victor Orta’s ears burned though the accompanying “sack the board” retained a more traditional Yorkshire gruffness. The Leeds fans also demanded the presence of Gnonto, a rare shard of light within a tough season but who has faded from prominence at just the wrong time.
Gracia suggested the Italian had been fit to start. “I can feel the supporters’ disappointment,” he said. “All of us can feel the disappointment.”
Leeds’s mood descended yet deeper when Pereira began and ended the move for Fulham’s second, the outstanding Robinson once more bursting down the left. The hapless, unfortunate Meslier again palmed the ball into the goalscorer’s path.
Rather than their previous insurrectional rancour, the away fans’ response was seething silence. Their team’s response was admirable, forceful at last. Bamford’s effort was deflected into the Fulham goal by João Palhinha. On came Gnonto and with eight minutes of time added on, they had means to find a way back. It became Fulham’s turn to run down the clock.
A final flurry saw Meslier up for a corner, seeking the ultimate in redemption. It never arrived. Leeds’s next two matches, Tuesday at home to Leicester and then away at Bournemouth, may well decide their fate. And Gracia’s too.
