Always worried when Philips not playing.
We're supposed to have players who can play in multiple positions, but when he's out, he;'s replaced by a player nowhere near as effective and rest of defence shuffles, you lose Ayling's surging runs forward, central defence no longer so solid etc etc.
I think you can tell in first minute or two what sort of Leeds we're going to get and today it was one of those games where we were going to struggle.
Defence lets in a relatively easy first goal.
Rightly escape a penalty claim, no such luck send time as Meslier far too casual on the ball and we're rightly punished for that.
Bamford and just about everyone else relatively anonymous as Arsenal walk though our defence to score third and Meslier looks like he could do with Kiko stepping back in its that bad....
Thought 2 subs were too early and we could have given a youngster a chance and Cost gives it away, Struiik goes missing, we go 4 down and you're really fearing for this scoreline.
I kind of switched off then and zoned out of teh game as was doing other things and so when Struijk goal came it was just meh....
Huggins comes on and shape seems to change and we nick another with Costa hopefully getting some redemption. I really feel Costa needs game time to start seeing the best of him again.
If I was Hernandez, I would be off this summer.
Some nice football at times, but don't gift that penalty, dont get caught at near post and that's a 2 all draw.
Let's be honest, Arsenal deserved to win, its just annoying that we are so stupid at the back at times.
The worrying thing though, is how much loss of Phliips affects us and how little cover we have for that role.
Thoughts from today
posted on 14/2/21
Today we were the Architects of our own demise.
Arsenal pressed very well and deserved to win. No doubt we are better with Phillips, and Struijk and Ayling in their normal roles, but the loss came down to just one point for me...continuously inviting pressure playing out of the back, sometimes as a keeper you need to send the troops forward and boot it 80 yards...turn the tables and high press them. At the end of the day, we fought and achieved a respectable scoreline. Let’s not lose sight of the fact Arsenal are in a false position, hundreds of millions of pounds of talent on the field against 10 players we had in the Championship.
posted on 14/2/21
Lot of Leeds fans pretty much wrote us off when we saw the team sheet. I really like struijk he’s started playing really well as a cb and he has decent ball control and a range of passing. But he has the turning circle of a super tanker and understandably doesn't have the positional sense as a dm.
As kebab says, llorente is dm cover, so when we’re missing kp and him it’s a problem because it disrupts the whole flow of the team.
That said they had 5 shots on target, scored 4 goals and our keeper had a mare. It’s fine margins.
Positives were we stuck at it second half. Roberts who I’d pretty much given up on, was excellent and has put in a run of good performances off the bench. Thought Huggins looked calm and comfortable - and after a bad error it was good to see costa looking a bit of a threat.
Meslier’s distribution is an ongoing issue. He’s clearly instructed not to go long, but when sides press us it really puts the pressure on him. To some degree it’s just part and parcel of how we play but the number of chances it’s costing us, is really stacking up now.
posted on 14/2/21
Even though Fulham won tonight I think we are almost safe and another 2 wins should more than be enough to ensure our Premier league status.
Fascinating to go through the remaining fixtures though and assuming Sheffield Utd and WBA allowing for the odd shock result I have Fulham and Newcastle both on 34 points after 37 games. Those two then face each other at craven cottage in the final game of the season.
posted on 14/2/21
comment by Macca: Emily Bishop's love child (U8194)
posted 59 seconds ago
Even though Fulham won tonight I think we are almost safe and another 2 wins should more than be enough to ensure our Premier league status.
Fascinating to go through the remaining fixtures though and assuming Sheffield Utd and WBA allowing for the odd shock result I have Fulham and Newcastle both on 34 points after 37 games. Those two then face each other at craven cottage in the final game of the season.
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Assuming Sheffield United and WBA are already down.
posted on 14/2/21
Messing around at the back like they do - it was bound to happen. Why do they do that so much? Why aren't they working harder to create space for the keeper to play it into. His options are always too limited when the opposition presses - and they did that quite well tonight.
posted on 14/2/21
comment by milkyboy (U12731)
posted 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
Lot of Leeds fans pretty much wrote us off when we saw the team sheet. I really like struijk he’s started playing really well as a cb and he has decent ball control and a range of passing. But he has the turning circle of a super tanker and understandably doesn't have the positional sense as a dm.
As kebab says, llorente is dm cover, so when we’re missing kp and him it’s a problem because it disrupts the whole flow of the team.
That said they had 5 shots on target, scored 4 goals and our keeper had a mare. It’s fine margins.
Positives were we stuck at it second half. Roberts who I’d pretty much given up on, was excellent and has put in a run of good performances off the bench. Thought Huggins looked calm and comfortable - and after a bad error it was good to see costa looking a bit of a threat.
Meslier’s distribution is an ongoing issue. He’s clearly instructed not to go long, but when sides press us it really puts the pressure on him. To some degree it’s just part and parcel of how we play but the number of chances it’s costing us, is really stacking up now.
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Meslier was to blame for 3 of the goals, two of which were the result of long balls out that went to Arsenal players, literally every time. In defence of Meslier our defenders insisted on passing back to him instead of playing it upfield - with the resulting big boot out leading to another Arsenal attack. Meslier’s arrogance/naivety/stupidity then gifted Arsenal a penalty. At that point, Meslier was such a liability I’d have taken him off for Kiko - something I’d never thought I’d ever hear myself saying. Why isn’t anyone - including the player himself - addressing Meslier’s distribution?
posted on 15/2/21
comment by Stoopo (U4707)
posted 6 hours, 3 minutes ago
Phillips is a miss but we had a reasonably settled back four, so moving Struijk into DMF and then playing both Ayling and Shackleton out of position is what cost us today.
I love Bielsa but disagree with him playing three players out of position when he could have played only one out of position.
If he’s worried about their midfield then just play five across there:
Raphinha - Shackleton - Klich - Dallas - Harrison.
Switch them about as the game unfolds.
I think the first half would have been much different.
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Absolutely right, Stoopo, we looked very disjointed in the first half. Not only were the players themselves struggling to adapt, the rest of the backline was weakened.
On the positive front, though, Roberts and Raphinha were excellent value and, despite being responsible for the fourth goal, Costa showed some glimpses of what he is capable of.
There are a number of posters who have a 'black-and-white' view of players. One bad game and they are the worst in the world, one good game, and they are world beaters.
What we saw tonight was a Leeds team that was handicapped by loss of a key player and a poor set-up from Bielsa, who still played like everything was worth fighting for.
There was not one quitter on the pitch tonight. Not one player backed out of a challenge, or failed to track back when needed. Our players give everything for us, and for each other. So what if we got beaten by a good Arsenal side tonight? There will be better days. MOT.
posted on 15/2/21
As I said a number of times before the match (in hope it wouldn't happen) and during the match day thread moving 3 players around and weakening those positions rather than making a one for one switch was one of MB's worst tactical calls in his time at Leeds so far. He has massive credit in the bank so we can forgive him that and must have had his reasons however flawed the outcome was.
Despite that tactical issue the main problem was the guy who was seeing most of the ball for us was Meslier and it was evident from an early stage he was down on confidence on distribution and we just kept feeding him the ball and often unnecessarily so.
Spirited second half performance and Bamford penalty call predictably going Arsenal's way stopped it from being a nervous last 15 minutes for them. Roberts did himself no harm and good to see Huggins get some game time although he is a left sided player.
Sometimes outcomes like this game whilst a bit painful, do at least put areas for improvement in the spotlight for Bielsa and Orta for the summer and may give Bielsa food for thought on his small, tight squad ethos and the need for a strong bench with genuine in-game options and cover key player absences.
posted on 15/2/21
comment by RobLUFC Have you ever seen a better goal or on... (U5692)
posted 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
As I said a number of times before the match (in hope it wouldn't happen) and during the match day thread moving 3 players around and weakening those positions rather than making a one for one switch was one of MB's worst tactical calls in his time at Leeds so far. He has massive credit in the bank so we can forgive him that and must have had his reasons however flawed the outcome was.
Despite that tactical issue the main problem was the guy who was seeing most of the ball for us was Meslier and it was evident from an early stage he was down on confidence on distribution and we just kept feeding him the ball and often unnecessarily so.
Spirited second half performance and Bamford penalty call predictably going Arsenal's way stopped it from being a nervous last 15 minutes for them. Roberts did himself no harm and good to see Huggins get some game time although he is a left sided player.
Sometimes outcomes like this game whilst a bit painful, do at least put areas for improvement in the spotlight for Bielsa and Orta for the summer and may give Bielsa food for thought on his small, tight squad ethos and the need for a strong bench with genuine in-game options and cover key player absences.
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Yes I said on another thread that the senior players should have realised how quickly Arsenal were closing down Meslier and taken some responsibility. It was an accident waiting to happen.
posted on 15/2/21
Still quite frustrated with the result as we showed for 40 minutes of the second half we were a match for the opposition.
Basically beaten by 3 dreadful goals in the first half, one of them an absolute gift.