'Special' - Leeds United boss on Whites 'freak one', youngsters' potential and praise for pair

Leeds United’s under-21s fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Chelsea in Sunday’s Premier League Cup clash in York but only after a stirring second half fightback upon quickly falling 2-0 behind against a star-studded young Blues side.

Chelsea’s line-up featured a recent big money purchase in 18-year-old Brazilian forward Deivid Washington whom the Blues signed for £17m from Santos in August on a seven-year-deal.

The summer signing quickly impressed and helped himself to a first-half brace within 26 minutes of Sunday’s cup tie which Leeds approached following last weekend’s 7-1 league hammering at home to Crystal Palace.

That, though, reasoned Whites 21s boss Michael Skubala, was a “freak” result, the coach of United’s youngsters hailing his side’s second half fightback against Chelsea with particular praise for centre-backs Jeremiah Mullen and James Debayo.

"I think last week was a bit of a freak one,” said Skubala, referencing the surprise 7-1 blitz. "I actually think Chelsea are better than Palace – so I actually think the performance – when you come off results like that, even though they are freak things sometimes, shows the grit and the mentality of keep going. After they went 2-0 down, they kept going and going and it just shows what a special group they can be when they are actually on full tilt which is amazing.”

Skubala added: “It was a really good second half performance. I call it pushing the game, we were going after it, we were on the front foot. I thought we started a bit slow in the first half, got caught in behind with some deep runners from midfield and we tidied that up at half-time. But I thought in the second half they were really good and it was a really good performance."

Pressed on facing a £17m signing in Brazilian star Washington, Skubala reasoned: "I think that's the beauty of under-21s. There's some good players that turn up bought for lots of money and I thought Jez (Mullen) and James Debayo were brilliant on the back line.

"They dealt with everything and pushed it high when we were challenging them to keep a high line and be really aggressive defenders. There's no better test than some top, top players to play against and I thought all the back line, in the second half particularly, were really, really good."