'Contempt' - Fuming Leeds United fans on Bournemouth shocker, two-week prediction and 'bad joke'

Here is what our YEP Jury had to say on the 4-1 defeat on the south coast including thoughts on a Whites “bad joke” and an imminent prediction within the next two weeks.

NEIL GREWER

It really cannot get any worse. Another heavy defeat after a bright start – and the next game is against Man City. This game was winnable against a much-less expensively-assembled squad than ours yet, once again, Leeds crumbled and allowed the opposition to make the most of chances whilst not taking enough of their own.

Something is wrong, massively wrong. Whilst Tyler Adams is a big miss, Adam Forshaw can surely do a better job than others but he is not given a start. Illan Meslier is in the worst form of his career, changing formations is not working and while starting Willy Gnonto saw him give a decent performance, we need 11 players doing that.

Poor, aimless passing is becoming the norm, in such contrast to recent seasons and indeed earlier this season – a symptom of low confidence. Leeds are breaking Premier League records for goals conceded in April, which is unacceptable. Something needs to change and quickly. Overall shocking – I can't bring myself to say more.

Man of the match: Willy Gnonto, one of few to emerge with any credit from the game.

ANDY RHODES

The phrase ‘must-win game’ has been thrown around a lot in recent weeks but this was certainly an opportunity Leeds couldn’t afford to pass up. Bournemouth weren’t great but, as Leeds have with many opponents recently, the visitors let them play their game without much resistance.

In fact, the Cherries showed the determination you would expect from a team desperate for points themselves. United didn’t show the confidence, the creativity or even the desire to go after the game and take it to their hosts.

When the performances are lacking, the belief very quickly drains away and you have to wonder where the goals, never mind the points, are going to come from in Leeds’ remaining games. Of course, much of this sits firmly at the door of the board but the players haven’t shown that they’re up for the fight, and Javi Gracia hasn’t shown the aptitude to know how to turn this around. Where Leeds go from here in terms of turning this around is anyone’s guess but the Championship has never looked closer.

Man of the match: The United fans doing the 500-mile round trip.

KEITH INGHAM

How can you put into words that miserable performance? Nothing from the players to suggest Leeds have a remote chance of staying up. Relegation will be confirmed in a couple of weeks. Javia Gracia, apart from a couple of games, has done little. Once again, when Leeds were floundering, he opted to do nothing and needs to be shown the door. Who comes in is not important but, when your team just gives in, something should be said post game but we got the same defeatist attitude from a coach out of his depth.

Bournemouth won’t have an easier game. Goals from Lerma (2), Solanke and Semenyo were enough to push Leeds another step through the relegation trap-door. Patrick Bamford scored the Leeds goal when they were 2-0 down.

All we can hope is that when we start again in August the team has new owners and a coach who can get the best out of players still there. The fans will always be there but they don’t seem to matter. To the players, I have nothing but contempt for your efforts.

Man of the match: Nobody deserves any credit for the debacle, once again.

MIKE GILL

After 38 games in the Premier League, the worst three teams are relegated. If by some miracle, Leeds United are not one of these three it will be of little credit to them. Their league position on Sunday night of 16h is almost a bad joke.

Not that any of we long-suffering fans can see much humour in the situation. The performance almost fits the Leeds United failure template: Good start; Soft goal from Lerma; Another soft goal from Lerma; Goal from Bamford to give false hope; Solanke scores just after the hour; Semenyo scores at the death.

We can now look forward to four weeks of pain and suffering with perhaps a little bit of humiliation thrown in. We will stay up or be relegated but, whatever the outcome, there has been little joy this season. The last grains of Bielsa's magic dust have now vanished into the atmosphere, leaving no trace of the all-too-brief golden era that we enjoyed. Even our triumphs had to be witnessed on television, owing to the plague of Covid.

Man of the match: Willy Gnonto.

DAVID WATKINS

Well, I think that is that folks! I had this down as a must-win game and we were beaten soundly in a manner not dissimilar to countless other recent games. It is hard to escape the conclusion that this squad of ours just isn’t good enough and neither is the management of the team and the club.

There are on-field factors that may have contributed to our tailing off this season – the absence of Tyler Adams for so much of it and the absence of Max Wober at various times has not helped but we cannot use the absences of just two players as much of an excuse.

We should have learned the lessons from last season when we faced similar lengthy absences from crucial players. It’s something that ought to have been foreseen and covered for. Neither did we learn the lesson that we needed to strengthen our defence and, once again, against Bournemouth, a very average team, we were found wanting in that department.

My guess is that our rivals at the bottom will just about scrape together enough points now to leave us stranded in the bottom three and, no matter what emergency changes are brought in, surely it will be too little too late. We have trashed the work of Marcelo and the class of 2019/20.

Man of the Match: I’d be belittling the award to name anyone.