'Too good' Leeds United but 'sterner tests' await

Here's what the YEP's Leeds United fan jury had to say about Saturday's victory over Rotherham United:

DAVID WATKINS

Another three points and another totally dominant performance against another woefully poor side. Having watched Ipswich drop points before we kicked off and hearing positive noises coming out of St Mary’s, things looked very good at one stage but, sadly, our friends from Huddersfield couldn’t hang on.

Nonetheless, all we can do is keep winning, and, with Ipswich now fading, surely Saints will stutter soon. 3-0 is a fine score to win any game by and it’s fast becoming our trademark, they’ll be renaming us Leeds Three at this rate!But we can’t ignore the fact that, once again, our ‘efficiency’ as Daniel Farke calls it, let us down.

So often we only had Viktor Johansson to beat but we fired high or wide; how many goals would we have scored this season if we could just be a bit more calm when striking the ball? It’s infuriating. Let’s not dwell on that though, let’s celebrate the fact we have a perfect league record since the turn of the year and it’s a while now since we faced a team that looked even remotely likely to halt our progress. My guess is a sterner test awaits at the Liberty tomorrow; can we continue the run?

Man of the match: Crysencio Summerville.

NEIL GREWER

On paper this was a game Leeds United should have won easily and they did. Despite the first goal from Patrick Bamford going in off a hand – such was Leeds dominance this refereeing error was of no consequence.

Constant Leeds pressure resulted in numerous chances throughout the game and in truth Leeds should have made more of them – a point not lost on Daniel Farke in post-match interviews. Once a third goal hit the net it was time for Farke to play the rotation game and give well-deserved rests to those who we need to protect and those who had survived 120 minutes at Plymouth.

The changes disrupted the flow of the game and late on Illan Meslier was called upon to make two saves.However, the changes did display the versatility of the team and provide minutes for Mateo Joseph, Charlie Cresswell and Connor Roberts. Man of the match contenders included Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter as usual, but I’m going for Ilia Gruev who once again orchestrated the Leeds performance and had the crowd singing his name as he left the field.

Man of the match: Ilia Gruev.

ANDY RHODES

I think we all knew going into this one that Rotherham United weren’t likely to cause Leeds the most problems this season. Even after shocks against struggling sides at home in previous seasons, United have been relentless in putting the pressure on Southampton and Ipswich Town since the turn of the year.

With Leeds so strong at home and the Millers so poor away, the writing looked to be on the wall after Patrick Bamford’s finish.The suspicious movement of his elbow towards the ball will be debated but what followed likely meant that it didn’t impact the result.The game then turned into the Crysencio Summerville show, as so many have already this campaign.

His quality is too good for most Championship defences to deal with and his two goals here, including a cheeky Panenka, show how confident he is currently feeling.Confidence will be the key to maintaining momentum as the games keep coming for Leeds.With two more long away trips to come, the team will be in for a tiring week.

Man of the match: Crysencio Summerville.

KEITH INGHAM

The scoreline should have been double what it was but ultimately it’s another three points on the board. The result would have taken United second but unfortunately Southampton came from 2-0 and 3-2 behind to beat Huddersfield Town 5-3, and stay one point above Leeds. Leeds started well and were ahead in 10 minutes, Junior Firpo got behind the Rotherham defence and Patrick Bamford scored with his chest or arm – much to the annoyance of the Rotherham team and bench. 

Leeds were in complete control and only wasteful finishing, once again, stopped the scoring increasing in the first half. Two second-half goals from Crysencio Summerville, one a penalty, then gave Leeds a very comfortable win. Summerville was a menace but Ilia Gruev was absolutely superb in midfield and deserved his name sung as he was substituted. 

Not for the first time the Bulgarian showed what a bargain he was at £5 million. Not a lot of rest for the players as they take to the road to Wales for tomorrow night’s game with Swansea and on this form you’d expect Leeds to come away with three points.

Man of the match: Ilia Gruev.

MIKE GILL

As expected, Leeds did their job and recorded an expected and deserved win against Rotherham United. The game contained the usual collection of near misses but if you create as many chances as the Whites did then you will end up putting a proportion of them in the net.

They were three very different goals – the first one was a hotly-disputed effort from Patrick Bamford which appeared to strike his arm on the way into the net and at 10 minutes into the game it was a setback that the Millers could ill afford. Leeds were further rewarded for their dominance seven minutes into the second half when Crysencio Summerville cut through the Millers' defence using his pace and skill to score a fine individual effort. On the hour, the little Dutchman was chopped down in the penalty area. After a bit of tomfoolery by Bamford who pretended he wanted to take the spot kick, Crysencio picked himself up and scored the cheekiest of lobs over the prone goalkeeper to end Rotherham’s hopes of any sort of result. Sterner tests await – starting with a trip to Swansea City tomorrow night – but United will be ready for them.

Man of the match: Georginio Rutter.