HarryofOz wrote: We didn't lose because Lonergan made two errors and conceded goals, we lost because the pressure that Brentford applied in dominating most of the game led to those errors which resulted in goals being conceded. You could see that Brentford were dodgy defensively, but we didn't play well enough to apply sufficient pressure to take advantage,
Easy to say that errors didn't cost us the game and suggest that pressure led to the errors but it wasn't really the case. We had weathered Brentford's early storm and had just started playing a bit of football ourselves when we conceded the first goal.
Second half was fairly even and anyone could have got the decisive goal but to concede a soft goal at that late stage fairly much meant the game was over - however by contrast to them scoring from a poor free kick we put in an excellent free kick a minute or so later which had 3 of our players queuing up to score but unfortunately it fell to Ayling.
In comparison to our capitulation last season to Brentford this was a much better performance. We also have to remember that TC inherited a team that was in freefall at the end of last season. Perhaps the good results early on in the season were the fluke and we have an average team that lost a lot of matches at the end of last season and has again now. TC certainly didn't inherit a team nailed on for a play-off place and as I have mentioned previously take Chris Wood out of last year's team and we finish bottom half.
What we have seen since our disastrous losing run at the end of last season is 4 of our better players leave (Taylor, Wood, Bartley & Green) and they have been replaced by a Cellino-esque scattergun approach where we have signed quantity instead of proven quality. The only player that really has looked the part consistently has been Saiz with Alioski and Pennington the only other players that are probably even first team squad standard. So [b
]we have a vastly weakened team compared to last season and as such we have a weaker side than a team that won only 1 of their last 8 matches at the end of last season [/b](or 2 in 11 going even further back).
We have a weaker team than we did when Brentford completely outplayed us, a weaker team than one that got outplayed by a relegation threatened Burton when we were trying to get promoted, a weaker team than the one that ended the season with a limp draw at Wigan who had already been relegated.
As such we need to get a grip on reality. TC is not a miracle worker. I would suggest he hugely overachieved earlier on in the season and also somehow had us playing some eye-catching football in comparison to the drivel served up for a lot of last season, even when we were winning. We have lost most of the successful parts of the team (Green, Bartley, Taylor & Wood) and kept the average players that no one really wanted. The only player we have kept that had any real value is Pontus Jannsen and he is a pale shadow of the player he was. Ayling, Berardi, Cooper, O'Kane, Phillips, Dallas, Roofe etc - do you really think any premiership team or even top 6 championship side would have been trying to sign them?
But hey we are Leeds and we should be walking the division despite not spending as much money as we recouped in the transfer market and despite us losing 4 of our best players.
We flattered to deceive last season but in reality we are a very average team in a highly competitive division. Whereas most teams strengthened we significantly weakened and gambled on a lot of players that so far have not looked the part apart from in brief glimpses.