Leeds: Phil Hay left impressed by how defensively astute Javi Gracia has his team set up

Phil Hay has been left impressed by how compact and tight Leeds United has been defensively since Javi Gracia took over.

The Lowdown: Gracia already making a difference

Prior to Leeds appointing Gracia, it looked as though Leeds were only heading one way under Jesse Marsch and that was down into the championship with the American boss winning just twice in his previous 20 league games.

Since the Spaniard has come into the club he’s certainly made Leeds more difficult to beta as against Southampton they kept a clean sheet and then in the FA Cup against Fulham, the Premier League high-flyers needed two outside-the-box world-class strikes to give them the win.

Having a solid defensive base is one thing that Leeds will need if they are to move away from the dreaded relegation zones because all season they’ve only managed five league clean sheets, so that is clearly an area of concern.

The Latest: Leeds looking solid defensively

Hay has admitted on the latest episode of The Phil Hay Show that the way Gracia has made Leeds hard to beat in his first two games in charge has been very impressive.

He said: (8:30) “The thing that’s jumped out to me from the two matches under Gracia so far is how compact and tight Leeds have looked defensively and how little they’re giving away in the way of big chances.

“None in these two matches which is a really good sign because if you go throw the numbers Leeds are way up the charts when it comes to the number they’ve given away over the course of the season and up to this point. So it suggests to you that firstly there’s a framework developing that is going to make Leeds tidier at the back and more solid at the back.”

The Verdict: Could be a solid end to the season

It’s certainly an area that needed to be addressed at Leeds heading into the final few months of the season as the Whites rank as the eighth-worst team when it comes to XGA, which is far from where they would like to be.

The fact that Gracia has already made a clear switch in formation since taking over to deploy three midfielders at once appears to be working and forcing teams to go around them and not straight through them to their final third.

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If Leeds can be difficult to break down while also still giving the license to get forward to players such as Rodrigo, Wilfried Gnonto and Crsyencio Summerville, then they could be in a great place to survive the drop.

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