Manager Daniel Farke blasted the state of the Stadium of Light pitch in his post-match assessment as Sunderland beat Leeds United last night – branding the condition of the grass as “horrendous”.
Jobe Bellingham scored the only goal of the game as Sunderland secured a second win in a row since the sacking of Tony Mowbray. Michael Dodds guided Sunderland to a win over West Brom on Saturday.
It saw Leeds’ unbeaten run of seven games come to an end, suffering a fourth Championship defeat of the season. Three of those have been 1-0 losses, also to Stoke and Birmingham. 3-1, to Southampton.
It was a poor result and performance to go with it. While Leeds created a few half-chances, nothing was golden – and we looked lethargic, playing three days after the trip to Blackburn at Ewood Park, a 2-1 win.
Speaking after the match to Leeds United’s YouTube channel, Farke bemoaned the state of the pitch and took blame away from his players – even criticising the ref for giving 50-50 decisions to Sunderland.
“We’ve had so many games, where we created so many chances and scored so many goals. That’s football. Sometimes when the opponent sits that deep, the pitch is horrendous,” Farke said on Tuesday.
“The ref gives 50-50 decisions against you – then you have to be rock solid. But we controlled all their counter attacks, I struggle to accuse the lads for the goal,” he told Leeds United’s YouTube channel.
Leeds manager Daniel Farke blasts state of Sunderland pitch
It did not look the greatest, but it does also seem as if Farke is trying to shield the blame on the Leeds players for the loss – blaming everything else. He also says Alex Pritchard got lucky, with his assist.
It’s done and dusted at this stage. Leeds must now recover and switch attention to Saturday when we return to Elland Road to host Coventry City, a game that Leeds now must win to keep the pressure on.
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