Junior Firpo sinks Southampton to give Javi Gracia a winning start at Leeds

As they waited for the teams to be announced Leeds fans debated whether their new manager, Javi Gracia, should drop Junior Firpo.

Not everyone appeared delighted when Jesse Marsch’s successor opted to stick with the left-back but, in the 77th minute, Gracia’s faith was rewarded when Firpo scored his first Premier League goal.

It was a fine finish yet Gracia, back in the technical area after an eight month sabbatical following his sacking by the Qatari champions, Al Sadd, also deserves credit for the game-changing introduction of Crysencio Summerville who helped create Firpo’s precious strike.

Small wonder the Spaniard was left smiling. “I feel really good, really happy,” he said after seeing his side secure a first win in 11 league games and move out of the relegation zone. “It was one step but an important step. It was a tough game, a very close game, but we found a good balance. We waited for our moment and we took it. We also kept a clean sheet. That’s important and the way we need to grow. I’m very proud.”

Gracia had suggested he was open to modifying the aggressive, high intensity, pressing game Leeds adopted under Marcelo Bielsa and retained by Marsch and, sure enough, they played at a slightly slower tempo with a more measured approach.

Gracia’s players interspersed rapid changes of pace with prolonged bouts of patient passing. Significantly, they also used the flanks a little more than under Marsch, whose teams tended to be extremely narrow.

Not that these alterations initially delivered much success against a deep-sitting, well organised Southampton who were happy to turn midfield into an attritional battleground.

Rubén Sellés’s side created only one real chance during the opening 45 minutes – a counterattacking