Leeds United lost 4-0 at home to Manchester City and never looked like landing a punch on the title-contenders. However, most of the national media saw no shame in the performance, but did question where the much-needed goals were going to come from.
Here is how the national media responded to Leeds United's performance yesterday:
"No shame in being beaten" – Phil McNulty, BBC
"Leeds showed their spirit was intact and the magnificent, noisy support of their followers can never be doubted as they continued to give deafening backing to their side even with the game gone. Marsch, however, needs to somehow find goals in the latest absence of main striker Patrick Bamford and the loss of the influential Stuart Dallas to what looked like a serious injury when he flew into a challenge on Jack Grealish.
"Dallas, under-rated outside Leeds, is the glue which helps to hold the side together and he will be a major loss. Leeds cannot allow this comprehensive defeat by a side of City's class to inflict too much damage on morale. There is no time for that and there is no shame in being beaten by such quality."
READ MORE: Gary Lineker on Leeds United's performance against Manchester City
"A tight, bruising contest" – Barney Ronay, Guardian
"Jesse Marsch had promised that Leeds would be 'pesky', not to mention 'annoying', 'aggressive' and 'dangerous'. He says a lot of good stuff. There is something of the high-end corporate communicator about Marsch, the Ivy League inspirationalist, coming on even in the moments before the game a mix between Sam Allardyce and the frontman for a seven-stage motivational programme called Find Your Wolf Spirit.
"From kick-off this was a tight, bruising contest. Leeds’ players made 49 tackles in this game. This is a lot of tackles."
"Simply not on the same planet" – Nick Ames, Observer
"The scoreline fails to mention that, for 54 minutes of an intensely charged early evening, Manchester City did not look especially comfortable. It does, however, say plenty about the nature of this season’s title race.
"Neither of the contenders show the remotest sign of blinking: the stare-off simply grows steelier by the week and this became yet another occasion when a spirited opponent was brushed away despite doing little wrong. Leeds are, like the rest of the league, simply not on the same planet and a raucous environment was ultimately no leveller."
"A tinder-box" – Phil Thomas, Sun
"There was a tinder-box feel to things, not helped by referee Paul Tierney almost seeming to take it in turns as to whether he gave fouls or not. The fans certainly let City know what they felt about it by pelting them with screwed up bits of white, yellow and blue paper they’d held up to form the word Yorkshire before kick-off.
"Every time a dark blue shirt – they were in their away kit – went near the far touchline, they were showered with them."
"Let themselves down" – Mark Critchley, Independent
"There was spirit, there was fight, there were a lot of screwed-up balls of paper, but ultimately nothing that Elland Road threw at Manchester City could prevent the defending champions from securing a comfortable 4-0 victory which returned them to the top of the Premier League table and left Leeds languishing at the other end, now only one place above the relegation zone.
"Leeds were bold and boisterous but always second best. Jesse Marsch’s side were a test for City initially but let themselves down with slack defending on set-pieces for the first two goals, converted by Rodri and Nathan Ake."
"Crying for Cooper to return" – Jonty Colman, Mirror
"When Cooper has played, Leeds have picked up 21 points from 18 games at a rate of 1.17 points per game. Without him, United have earned just 13 points from 16 games at a return of 0.81 points per match. They also averaged 1.28 goals conceded per game when he has played and more than three per game when he has not, an absolutely glaring comparison.
"With Leeds only a place above the drop for now, they will be crying for Cooper to return immediately to ensure that ever-nearing concerns of relegation do not get too serious."
