Wasteful Leeds rue mistakes against West Ham

09 Mar 2021 09:10 am, by Ellandback1

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Wasteful Leeds rue mistakes

A sloppy challenge in the penalty area by Luke Ayling set West Ham on their way to their 14th win of the season, and extended Leeds run without a win in England's capital to 1185 days (but who's counting). Jesse Lingard's surging run, impressive as it was, was not troubling the the well fortified Leeds defence until Ayling stuck out a leg; then the former red (in true Manchester United style) went to ground. Meslier initially saved Lingard's spot kick; but could only palm the ball in front of the England International, who tucked it away with ease. Surely it would not have been too difficult for the Frenchman to tip he ball around the post, or at least to the side?

This is the 9th spot kick Leeds have conceded this season. The most of any Premiership club. Looking back over the season - how many of these were soft? Up until that point Leeds had been on top. They had two goals chalked off, the first for offside by the smallest of margins, but in true Leeds Utd style, we concede soft goals. The Eastenders doubled their tally on 28 minutes. An in swinging corner was met by defender Craig Dawson. The central defender flung himself in front of the Leeds defence giving Meslier no chance. Dawson almost got on the score sheet again minutes later from another corner. This time the post spared Leeds blushes.

The second half was far more even. Only poor finishing from Bamford and Raphinha, more reminiscent of scoring in Rugby Union saved West Hams clean sheet!

Should Klich be dropped?

Since arriving back on loan from FC Utecht in the Summer of 2018, the Polish International has been an absolute revolation. Not only that, he has missed the least amount of games out of anyone else in the squad. However, the 30yo has been off form for the last three months, and whilst competition is thin on the ground, his performances are getting worse.

Surely, if a player is not playing well, he should be dropped allowing for new blood to be given an opportunity? How bad are his performances? WhoScored, a reputable website who provide data to most betting companies place Klich in 15th place within the Leeds Utd squad on their average performance.

Sloppy and unacceptable

Leeds have conceded more penalties in the Premiership than any other team (9). The Whites have also conceded more goals than anyone else in top flight from set pieces (14). Would you expect this from a World renowned Manager? These are things that far lesser teams (and Managers) get right by organisation, discipline and training ground repetition. Yes, Bielsa has got us into a strong position, but he has been given significant monies to get us here!

Agree or not?

Breakfast Debate

21 Comments

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Leeds1000 wrote on 09 Mar 2021 08:41 pm

Smudge3920 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:56 pm Exactly right mate, your comments enhance mine. To be a truly attacking side which we are, we have to be far more clinical...Mondays game was for me the worst yet offensively as we had 3 clear cut chances that should have been put away, absolutely no excuse for the misses. add one more half chance and VAR being good to us for once and there you go we win 5-2. This team is so close to being 6 to 10 points better off than we are...I have questioned for awhile now where it is we lack... defensively or offensively.? Now we have a good baseline to go on 27 games.. I am even more behind MB than at the start of the season (if thats possible) Defensivley we have tightened up, we are not leaking goals like we did earlier in the season...but our finishing is regressing... We are safe this year and I am sure this will be resolved in the summer.

Off the top of my head i can only think of Burnley & Villa where we didn't that create many chances. Another top striker on the bench would compliment that pressure we had on Monday. Its all on Bamford at the minute.

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Leeds1000 wrote on 09 Mar 2021 08:29 pm

CHAPELALLMAN wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:39 pm Thanks for your thoughts Leeds.

I would be very happy with 17th and just staying up as well. I think what I meant is that 11th is pretty good going at this stage, but it's a bit premature to get overly excited about it with so many games still to play. 17th would do just fine though if that turns out to be the finishing position.

Regarding expenditure I think it is possible to compete at the top with a some canny signings blended with a few players coming through from the U23s. I think that Leicester spent 52.8m the year that they won the PL, and had the 4th lowest wage bill. We've actually spent motre than that figure in the summer if you include Costa. To come near to what Leicester achieved with so little you need exceptional scouting and transfer deals.

Going back to O'Leary's era you had a crop of young players - Bowyer ( signed by Wilko ) Kewell, Smith, Woodgate, Kelly and Harte and then you had experienced signings - Martyn ( signed by Wilko ) Matteo, Bakke, Viduka, Batty and then Dacourt. Those were all really canny signings. OK, later on Risdale went OTT and made a series of badly judged and unaffordable signings, but for a few seasons that formula worked brilliantly. Ferdinand was an expensive signing, but the club made a big profit after he was sold. Personally I think that this is the only way to get back into the top 6 - we wouldn't be able to afford a Phillips if he was at another club right now for example. Bakke, Viduka and Dacourt were great value as the club avoided the over inflated domestic market, just as it has done now with Raph. Dacourt cost the same as Seth Johnson

There is an element of luck involved as well I believe. For example if the club had pulled off the Haaland transfer in 2018 then it would be in quite a bit stronger position to compete at the top - imagine what Haaland would have done with those chances last night. That's the kind of deal which can totally change the fortunes of a club overnight.

Canny signings is the key word. With all the money involved these days its just great to be back in the mix with a chance of signing good players after living on scraps in the Championship for many years. I think AR made it clear in one interview i have seen. He talks about the Leicester model of selling their best players and still being able to compete, that needs a good scouting network in place to do that. Leicester were last promoted in 2014 so we have a few years to catch up.

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Smudge3920 wrote on 09 Mar 2021 07:32 pm

Muppet the Cat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 7:25 pm I would agree that the cards didn’t fall for us offensively last night Smudge and we were extremely wasteful in front of goal, but to suggest that was a game that could have been 5v2 in our favour is the stuff of extreme rose tinted spectacles.

IMO both our goals were rightly chalked off and it was a penalty for West Ham. Don’t forget they also hit the woodwork (twice I think) and had other good and half chances, so I’m sure some of their fans (as my immediate neighbour is and was this morning) will be suggesting it should have been 4 or 5 to them at least.

I dont wear rose coloured spectacles...far to much of a realist for that...and I disagree we had at least 3 cut chances that should have been in the back of the net...I stand by my opinion put 30% of the chances we create away and no one will be moaning about the defense, at least not to the extent many do now.

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Muppet the Cat wrote on 09 Mar 2021 07:25 pm

Smudge3920 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:56 pm Exactly right mate, your comments enhance mine. To be a truly attacking side which we are, we have to be far more clinical...Mondays game was for me the worst yet offensively as we had 3 clear cut chances that should have been put away, absolutely no excuse for the misses. add one more half chance and VAR being good to us for once and there you go we win 5-2. This team is so close to being 6 to 10 points better off than we are...I have questioned for awhile now where it is we lack... defensively or offensively.? Now we have a good baseline to go on 27 games.. I am even more behind MB than at the start of the season (if thats possible) Defensivley we have tightened up, we are not leaking goals like we did earlier in the season...but our finishing is regressing... We are safe this year and I am sure this will be resolved in the summer.

I would agree that the cards didn’t fall for us offensively last night Smudge and we were extremely wasteful in front of goal, but to suggest that was a game that could have been 5v2 in our favour is the stuff of extreme rose tinted spectacles.

IMO both our goals were rightly chalked off and it was a penalty for West Ham. Don’t forget they also hit the woodwork (twice I think) and had other good and half chances, so I’m sure some of their fans (as my immediate neighbour is and was this morning) will be suggesting it should have been 4 or 5 to them at least.

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Smudge3920 wrote on 09 Mar 2021 06:56 pm

Leeds1000 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:06 pm The whole ethos of this team is about attacking & entertainment imo and happy with that personally, but when we don't take our chances the rest comes in to question.

How many real defensive minded players do we really have? When we had Pontus he didn't worry about players moving around in the box he went and attacked the ball and headed it on most occasions, for me that's what a good defender should do, he just may not be able to play the slide pass thru to Bamford or be great on the deck.

Exactly right mate, your comments enhance mine. To be a truly attacking side which we are, we have to be far more clinical...Mondays game was for me the worst yet offensively as we had 3 clear cut chances that should have been put away, absolutely no excuse for the misses. add one more half chance and VAR being good to us for once and there you go we win 5-2. This team is so close to being 6 to 10 points better off than we are...I have questioned for awhile now where it is we lack... defensively or offensively.? Now we have a good baseline to go on 27 games.. I am even more behind MB than at the start of the season (if thats possible) Defensivley we have tightened up, we are not leaking goals like we did earlier in the season...but our finishing is regressing... We are safe this year and I am sure this will be resolved in the summer.

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