Leeds United fell to one of their most crushing defeats of the season yesterday, letting slip their slender 1-0 lead to eventually lose 5-1 to relegation rivals Crystal Palace.
It was truly a game of two halves, which saw a relentless Whites side relinquish their 1-0 advantage right before the break. Then, coming out for the final 45 minutes, the Yorkshire outfit went into a full meltdown which left both fans and the media in pure confusion.
Journalist Phil Hay wrote a series of impassioned Tweets detailing their collapse, as he first branded the result “The most bewildering half of football most of us have seen in ages”, before suggesting he hadn’t “seen a team vanish like this."
Javi Gracia seemed equally frustrated come full time, but remained as calm as ever to deliver his responses to the media whilst likely hiding his true thoughts.
The Spaniard had never suffered such humiliation since moving to Elland Road back in February, enjoying a largely successful period that had seen them rise out of the relegation zone.
However, this result has seen them firmly entrenched in the battle for survival once again.
One such question that saw the 52-year-old stutter was regarding Luke Ayling’s form, as he claimed: “He tries to do his best. In this moment, I don't want to give my personal opinion about one player.”
The former Watford boss cut a quietly frustrated figure, who likely had plenty more to say on the defender who had let his side down again.
How did Luke Ayling play vs Crystal Palace?
The reply from fellow journalist Tomi Oladipo succinctly sums up the 31-year-old’s performance, as he wrote: “He tries. He just isn’t good enough.”
The 5.3 Sofascore rating posted for the defender supports this, as he was handed the worst rating of anyone on the pitch.
This was underpinned by the fact he was dribbled past a demoralising six times, winning just six duels of the 18 competed in.
Having started their last 15 league games in a row now, there was a belief that Ayling had played his way back into form as many overlooked his shortcomings for the leadership qualities on offer.
However, against a resurgent Eagles outfit boasting the skilful exuberance of the likes of Michael Olise and Ebere Eze, the former Yeovil Town man was hopelessly out of his depth.
Of all the goals that damned Leeds to their embarrassing fate, the second right after the restart arguably was the most important.
The fact that it was all of Ayling’s doing only further exacerbates the misery of his display, which the media lapped up.
Journalist Beren Cross first highlighted his “wild diagonal” that surrendered possession, before fellow writer Phil Hay also claimed: “Ayling lets Ayew step in front of him and Ayew heads in unmarked. Poor defending all round and in the build-up. Ayling with head in hands.”
The occasional goal and good performance might mask the deficiencies of the £20k-per-week disappointment, but Gracia cannot go on with this liability in his side.
Indeed, those 'head in hands' moments have been all too frequent of late, with a lazy challenge the right-back's undoing in the defeat to Arsenal a week prior, having given away a penalty on Gabriel Jesus.
With a player like Rasmus Kristensen just waiting in the wings too, perhaps next time out the new boss could seek to ditch this defensive dud for some solidity.
