Leeds United fell to their first defeat of 2024 at Coventry City earlier today.
The Whites were beaten 2-1 at the Coventry Building Society Arena after another below par display, which has become a recurring theme since returning from the international break.
Despite a decent start to the game in which chances came and went, Coventry took the lead through in-form Ellis Simms, before Haji Wright doubled the lead just after the break.
Joel Piroe managed to pull one back from the bench with his first goal since February, but missed a golden opportunity in stoppage time to earn Leeds a point.
That said, Leeds’ performance in the first 60 minutes was not that of a side who deserved to take anything from the match, but will take solace in the fact Ipswich Town were also beaten.
BBC pundit says £1.3m Leeds player’s body language was actually ‘really poor’ vs Coventry today
Pundit Jon Newsome was sharing his assessment of the game on BBC Radio Leeds post-match, and selected a number of players who were below par.
He singled out all of Ilia Gruev, Glen Kamara, Georginio Rutter and Patrick Bamford as those who were below their best, but was less than impressed with one in particular.
Newsome believes that Crysencio Summerville actually had one of his poorest games of the season, thought it was his ‘body language’ which left him the most frustrated.
He said: “Did Gruev have a good game? I don’t think he did. I don’t think Kamara, Rutter, Bamford had good games. I think Crysencio Summerville had one of the poorest games I have ever seen him play.
“His body language for 60/70 minutes was really poor. That is half the team. It was a massive opportunity, but you have got to put it into perspective, do we resign ourselves to the play-offs or do we dust ourselves down and say there’s some more twists and turns in this?”
Summerville needs Tuesday bounce back for Leeds
It is difficult to criticise Summerville too much considering he practically carried Leeds to four points over the Easter period.
It is not great to see him visibly showing his frustrations, but ultimately, Leeds’ only real tactic today was to give him the ball and ask him to create something. When it doesn’t come off, he is always going to be frustrated.
Dan James, Bamford and Rutter were all far more ineffective than Summerville today and it is their performances which should come under scrutiny.
However, it will be important for the £1.3m man to bounce back against Sunderland on Tuesday, as Leeds simply need big performances from him in every game during the run-in.