Gary Cahill bemoans failure to close down opening goal in Crystal Palace’s defeat against Leeds United
BY SAM SMITH
Gary Cahill felt that he and his Crystal Palace team-mates should have closed down Jack Harrison quicker before the Leeds United winger scored the opening goal in the Eagles’ 2-0 defeat at Elland Road.
Harrison was afforded too much space on the edge of the area after three minutes and his strike deflected in via Cahill’s calf.
The South Londoners struggled to find a route back into the game. It was a complete contrast to their win over Newcastle United last week when they came from behind after an early goal.
Cahill said: “I need to see it again because I think we needed to close him down a bit quicker. Naturally when a goal is scored, there is always something you can do to stop it unless it is an absolute worldie.
“The build-up, it came to the edge of the box, it was obvious he was going to shoot, and we should have blocked the gap a bit quicker. But you can pull out holes in every goal.
“We had a similar start against Newcastle but our reaction was very good and we went on to win the game,” Cahill told Sky Sports. “Today, we could not quite get hold of the game or get in it in the first half. Second half, we were better. We had more attacks, but we found it difficult to get going in the first half.”
Former Palace loanee Patrick Bamford scored Leeds’ other goal midway through the second half. It was the striker’s 100th goal in club football.
Cahill felt that the timing of both goals did Palace no favours.
“They were [bad timings] but we have reacted in recent weeks. Today, we struggled to get to grips with it.
“The timing of both goals, especially the first one – to go down early again – was not what we were after. Then it’s an uphill challenge.”
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The same mistakes every game will they ever learn to many aging legs slow reaction all over the pitch need total revamp including manager serving up boring football painful to watch