Pascal Struijk rues Leeds United wastefulness vs Burnley as Mateo Joseph message sent
Leeds United’s early unbeaten run came to a disappointing end at Elland Road.
Pascal Struijk pointed towards poor finishing as the key reason Leeds United drew a blank during Saturday’s disappointing 1-0 defeat at home to Burnley.
Leeds fell to their first defeat of the season against fellow promotion favourites Burnley, with Luca Koleosho’s first-half counter-attack goal proving decisive at Elland Road. Daniel Farke’s side dominated possession and territory but were unable to consistently create and were kept at bay by a defensively resolute Clarets outfit.
Openings were rare but they did come, with Mateo Joseph and Wilfried Gnonto guilty of squandering early chances while an inspired James Trafford kept second-half efforts from creeping in. Leeds offered little in the game’s final stages and Struijk believes those earlier misses proved costly come full-time.
“Of course [we’re disappointed],” Struijk told LUTV. “We go into every game trying to win so when we dominate the game it's unfortunate we came away with zero points. They had a good solid block. It was hard for us to work around and then penetrate. The times we did, we were not clinical enough. We had plenty of set-pieces and sometimes the goals come from there but they didn't go in so it’s something we need to work on.”
A frantic opening period saw chances at both ends and the biggest fell to Joseph, who pounced on Koleosho’s loose pass to race through on goal. The 20-year-old had half a pitch to make his mind up but after closing in on Burnley’s goal and facing a calm Trafford, poked his effort wide of the post.
Leeds remain unbeaten in the league after going ahead under Farke and so an early goal could have changed the game entirely, with Struijk ruing his teammate’s early chance. But the defender insists such chances are not as simple as some might think.
“As a striker one-v-one, you rarely get these chances running clean through on goal,” The defender said of Joseph’s chance. “It’s not as easy as it looks and unfortunately it didn’t go in but we should be clinical enough in these moments to capitalise and then if the game is 1-0 inside two minutes, we have a better chance of winning.”
Like Saturday’s visitors, Leeds are still bedding in a number of new signings and the September break came at the wrong time, with Farke revealing earlier this week he only had eight players to work with at points over the last fortnight. A number of those jetting off for international duty were late-summer arrivals and Struijk insists it will take time for them to fully hit their stride in a new environment.
“For the new players, it takes time to adjust to the team and the style of play,” he added. “But the lads who played the majority of today know what we want to do. For the new guys, it will take time for them to adjust but I’m sure they’ll get there pretty quickly.”