Steve Evans has rightly had a go at Belusci for his calamitous error that decided our game with Rotherham United, but as usual denied that his own failings had anything to with our defeat.

Leeds had quite a bit of the play during this afternoon’s game, and a draw would probably have been a fair result, but the decisive moment came with just one minute of normal time remaining. Bellusci attempted a ludicrous overhead kick when he could have simply headed clear, only to miss the ball completely.

This left Frecklington in the clear and he was brought down as he tried to go rounded Marco Silvestri, meaning our keeper was sent off and Rotherham had a penalty. With no Leeds substitiutions remaining Bellusci himself went in goal, but was powerless to prevent Halford getting the winner from the spot kick.

After the game Steve Evans told BBC Radio Leeds "I think when you make mistakes in games at Championship level, the quality of goalkeeping and defending, sometimes you have a chance to stop that mistake being a goal. When you make the type of mistake that was made today late in the game, you don't recover from that. Nobody has to tell Peppe that he's made a huge error."

We all know Bellusci can be an absolute liability, and I always have my heart in my mouth whenever the ball goes near him in the box, as you never know what he’s going to do next. But instead of publicly criticising his player, should Evans be taking responsibility for his own decisions and team formation?

It was of course Evans who chose Bellusci in the first place when the more reliable Cooper was available, and that’s not the only debatable selection he made this afternoon. With Wood finally back from injury and returning to the starting line up in place of the disgraced Doukara, we needed someone to supply the crosses to the big target man.

So why did Evans begin with four central midfield players, with two of them playing slightly out of position in wider roles. You are never going to get good quality crosses from the wings from players who aren’t used to playing in that position. Then Evans over-corrected with a double substitution in the 58th minute, with Carayol and Dallas replacing Mowatt and Cook.

Evans said that “I've just been complimented by Neil Warnock and his staff about how effective we became when we made the changes, so we got our changes right" but that wasn’t a view shared by the Leeds contingent in the crowd at the New York stadium. There was plenty of booing about the decision to replace Cook, who had been having a good game.

And just as important, the decision to use two of his three substitutions with over half an hour to play was to come back to haunt Evans right at the end of the game. With the injured Beradi having to be replaced in the 74th minute, there were no more substitutions available to send another goalkeeper onto the field once Silvestri had been dismissed.

Evans can moan all he likes about this defeat being ‘cruel’, but this defeat will give more ammunition to those who think that he’s not the man to take Leeds forward, amidst the rumours of discontent among the squad. If Cellino is thinking of making a change in the summer (which he probably is) then Evans will have to do better than this in the last few games of the season.

Photo: Action Images

makka64 added 23:34 - Apr 2 Spot on. All season he's been trying to show how good a manager he is by constantly changing things and 'over doing it'. Bad team selection and tactics have been a common theme. Six matches and our opponents have had over ten attempts on goal - over 80! The three wins we had against Bolton, Cardiff and Blackburn were far from convincing; we struggled against Bolton and they missed plenty, hitting the woodwork; Cardiff had 25 attempts on goal, hit post and bar and we got pinned in our half by ten men. Blackburn was an improvement, but only in goals scored, we gave them 11 attempts. Evans failure to realise the frailty at the back, whilst lauding the back four's performances meant it was only going to be a matter of time until we got spanked again, and along came Huddersfield! If you gave Premiership teams 10 chances a game you would be down before Xmas! Evans also seems not to be grasping that we seem to struggle when we have width. He's quick to point out his own successes (few), even to the point of taking credit for Rotherham's at one juncture and also Antenucci's form. There is also the fact that the constant flip-flopping of his opinions shows that he is clearly grasping at straws. Opinions on players; the squad was 60% not good enough, then, after 3 wins, we don't need to get anyone in; we are magnificent at the back one minute, then a disaster the next. We play with width, get beat, then play narrow and win 3 - so he plays with width again and we get stuffed 4-1. The times we've been shocking in the first half of games, before playing much better in the second half shows he's clearly not getting things right. This job is beyond him. Even when he's brought players in, only Bridcutt looks a good deal. Diagouraga is being messed about, even when playing well. It's so unsettling for players. I'm sick of reading pathetic moaning one minute and jingoism the next - and if I read anymore comments about how he 'wears his heart on his sleeve' and the word 'REMIT', I'll explode. Only Steve Evans believes his own hype! He's a non-league manager at a Championship club and it shows. He got lucky at Rotherham and he's only at Leeds because he's got a record of being shady around money and is easy to manipulate. People forget that he and his chairman conned the FA out of £250,000 at Boston and robbed Dagenham of the title. He was claiming some players were on £120 a week! (not libellous - fact!) Time to go NOW, get someone good in and give them a few matches to see what's what and then back them in the Summer. Steve Evans has shown that when he does bring people in, even he seems to be unsure of their worth, as they spend most of their time warming the bench!

0

Leeds United Polls