Leeds player ratings - Aston Villa 1 - 0 Leeds

Leeds United lost 1-0 to Aston Villa and it was one of the most comfortable one-goal wins you will see in the Championship. I don’t think Leeds would have scored if the match had gone on for 10 hours.

It was more of the same for beleaguered manager Paul Heckingbottom who continued his, and there is no way to dress this up, woeful recent record as a manager.

Leeds first half performance was terrible. they went in 1-0 behind but on the balance of play could have easily been 3 down. Very little attacking threat and allowing Aston VIlla to do whatever they wanted in possession with no pressure on them.

The second half was better but Leeds never looked a real threat. To be honest, Leeds just lacked quality whenever they did get the ball forward, and the players who are normally most likely to provide it had off-days. Aston Villa could have scored a couple more but for good work from some of the Leeds defenders and particularly Bailey Peacock-Farrell in goal.

Time now to look at each player and how they performed. As always you can tell me how wrong I am @mightywhitespod or @ThruItAllLUFC on twitter.

STARTING LINE-UP

Bailey Peacock-Farrell - Made a few good saves first half. Also did well to come off his line and clear when Jonathan Kodjia was running through on goal. Came for crosses well. No chance on the goal.

Second half made an unbelievable save to deny Grabban when unmarked 6 yards out, and that was only one of many good saves in the half. Continued to deal with everything that came his way. Man of the Match for me. 8.5/10

Stuart Dallas - Struggled to stop crosses in the first half because he was doubled up on (same for Pearce on the left). Some good covering at the back post to deal with crosses from the other side. Got forward a little more in the second half but as has been the case a lot lately his crossing wasn’t up to scratch. Defensively he did an okay job though for the most part. At the end he got done a couple of times which drops his rating. 5.5/10

Matthew Pennington - Leeds had allowed far too many crosses but for the first goal Pennington found himself facing the wrong way on a Jack Grealish cross, then didn’t jump with Lewis Grabban whose header left BPF with no chance. Made several other errors and never looked comfortable.

Looked more comfrotable second half while still not great. Late on allowed Scott Hogan to get in behind him too easily from a flick-on but chased back to make a tremendous recovery tackle. Dragged his rating up from what could have been a really bad score to just a poor one. 4.5/10

Paudie O’Connor - First half looked far better than his more experienced centre-back partner. Stood up to the test well, but could have easily given away a penalty with a naive push on Kodjia in the Leeds penalty area.

Not as strong in the second half but did not look out of place at this level. Made some good tackles. No real mistakes (a couple of mistimed headers but no issues from them). On current form, Jansson and O’Connor should be the starting pair right now. 7/10

Tom Pearce - Did well first half considering he was being consistently doubled up on by Robert Snodgrass and Ahmed El Mohamady. Too many crosses got in from his side but it was more on the way we were set up and the lack of set up than it was on him. A sign of how well he was doing was that the crosses often cam from deep as they couldn’t actually beat the young fullback. When it was 1v1, tended to come out on top.

Had more chance to get forward in the second half, put in a couple of good crosses and had a decent flicked effort from an Alioski corner. Also did some good covering work when Aston Villa got in behind Pennington. Needs to play every game for the rest of the season injuries permitting. 7.5/10

Kalvin Phillips - Very quiet in the first half. Kept possession well enough when he got on the ball, but not on the ball close to enough for a central midfielder. Second half, slightly more involved than he was in the first half but Leeds were dominated in midfield all game. 5/10

Ronaldo Vieira - In the first half did well, winning the ball back on a couple of occasions and trying to drive Leeds forward. Second half, a bit less effective but the best player out of the midfielders. 6/10

Ezgjan Alioski - Anonymous first half. Didn’t make himself available to receive the ball nearly enough. Had one effort from 25 yards when he had better options to pass to. Taking him off was fair enough. Far better than the man that replaced him though. 4.5/10

Pablo Hernandez - Rare to say this about Hernandez, but in the first half his passing was absolutely terrible (particularly by his standards). Unlike Alioski and Roofe kept trying to get on the ball despite having a poor half. More of the same in the second half unfortunately, his worst game since Christmas? 5/10

Kemar Roofe - Similar to Alioski, not available to receive the ball enough. Very quiet. Moved to play as a lone striker after the substitution of Ekuban but struggled, too many balls hit aerially and he was never likely to get much change out of James Chester and Mile Jedinak in the air. Taken off for Lasogga who was even less effective. 4.5/10

Caleb Ekuban - First half, kept losing the ball and never looked a goal threat. Only decent chance he had he beat his defender then deliberately hung a leg out to give himself an excuse to go down. Lower level of performance than his previous few starts. Probably the worst game I have seen him have for Leeds to be honest. Didn’t even have his usual level of work rate to make you feel better about him. Deservedly taken off at HT. 2/10

SUBSTITUTES

Samu Saiz (for Ekuban, HT) - Leeds looked better for his presence on the pitch. A couple of good cross field balls finding Hernandez and Phillips lead to half chances for Leeds. Was more willing to run at people than any other Leeds player. Not close to his best though and didn’t do enough. 5.5/10

Jay-Roy Grot (for Alioski, 65mins) - Came on, gave the ball away. 3.5/10

Pierre-Michel Lasogga (for Roofe, 77mins) - Everything after this sentence sums up his contribution. 3/10