Rotherham 2, Leeds United 1

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YorkshireSquare
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Rotherham 2, Leeds United 1

Post by YorkshireSquare »

Rotherham 2 (Revell 58, Clarke-Harris 65)
Leeds United 1 (Antenucci 30)

A poor second half performance at Ney York stadium on Friday night left Darko Milanic still searching for his first victory as Leeds United manager.

Lewis Cook came back into the starting line-up and Stephen Warnock returned after his mystery disappearance replacing Sloth and Byram. Leeds had gone ahead on the half hour mark when Souleymane Doukara played a lovely through ball which Antenucci latched onto and dispatched past Adam Collin to put the Whites one up.

Leeds had dominated possession in the first half but were unable to convert that into a bigger lead, the second half was a different matter however and whilst Rotherham rallied, Leeds were poor. Just before the hour Silvestri could only punch clear a Lee Frecklington shot, the rebound fell to Revell who made no mistake levelling the scores. With 15 minutes to go a Leeds move was broken down on the half way line. Jonson Clarke-Harris picked up the ball and ran forward unopposed before unleashing a shot from 30 yards out and sealing the points for Rotherham.

Manager Darko Milanic said after the game “We were playing well and controlled the game. We scored the goal we had some good counter-attacks, but in the last few minutes of the first half they began with long balls and crosses from all areas. They made a lot of pressure and although we were prepared for it in the second half we made two mistakes and they scored.” Here are the views of some of our members;


The views of drsdadsotherson;

Some nice play until we went behind, then we just seemed to lose it completely. Despite the nice play I think I counted just 4 shots on target. The fact that this is an improvement on recent performances is even more worrying. Maybe we should focus more on what we are capable of playing and less on what the coach would like to see?
Adryan could well be worth every bit of the hype he came to us with. I'd like to see him get a start soon and see what he can do over 90 mins.

On a side note, since when was grabbing a player by the shoulder and wrenching him backwards to the floor not a bookable offence, yet pushing a player away with a ball is? You see keepers shoving players away from a goal kick every match, so why was it a booking for Silvestri?


The views of Gurj;

So frustrated after that non show in the second half! We had control of the game and yet just didnt come out the changing rooms after the break ?!

Thing that got me, we kept possession so well before we scored, overplayed if anything, with too many side ways passes in our half but when it was time to actually do that in the second half we didnt do it? I'm sure I speak for all LUFC fans when saying, I was so confident at half time that we would go on and win it and so to actually lose is just a total sickener.

On the positive side, and have to say credit where it's due, Adryan did live up to the hype after coming on. I was a doubter but here definitely gave us a much needed spark. ThepProblem is how do we get him, Mowatt and Lewis Cook (Who I thought was superb in the first half ) into te same team? Only way I can see how Adryan can fit in, is if Doukara is dropped and so we play the Brazilian off Attenuci. Only issue then is we start to look very lightweight in the middle.

Norwich away next, cant say I'm expecting much there...


The views of theleedsmango;

Our main issue is not being able to sustain 90minutes of consistent football. We alternate between having good 1st or 2nd halves. Is that a motivational issue? Probably.

It was a good game of football, for once we were the team trying to pass it around and the other team was relying on crosses and hoof ball. When we had that system, how many teams did we nick points off? It's always going to happen, especially when 80% of the teams will be upping their games to beat Leeds. But if Antenucci scores that cross from Mowatt in the first half, or Austin gets one of his long distant shots on target, and we'd have been 2-0 up; probably a completely different second half.

Mowatt, Cook, Adryan and Austin were all taking people on with great success... we haven't been taking people on like that since the Gradel days. Austin lacks the intelligence to know when to pass, when to shoot etc. but those sort of runs will pay off. Bianchi had a bit of a nightmare today and I would have subbed him off before Cook. I've said it before but Cook controls games in a way far beyond his years. He proved today that he is dangerous when running with the ball. Sad to say but we are not going to hold on to that talent for long.

Silvestri was solid except for the first goal. He parried the ball into the box (which would have seen Kenny get absolutely slaughtered). Nothing he could do for the second goal, brilliant swerve on the ball. The defenders should have closed the player down in what is commonly referred to as "don't let him shoot!". Now that Bellusci has mellowed a bit he looks even more like a great defender. Bar injuries or rest, Cooper and Del Fabro are going to struggle to get a chance to prove themselves.

Doukara struggled yesterday and hasn't hit the form he showed at the start of the season. He did play the through ball that led to the goal, however, so I guess he wasn't entirely useless. Antenucci is going to fall offside more often than not when he plays on the shoulder of defenders but if he can score like that on the rare times he is on side then it's a decent strategy. My fear is we are limited to throughballs to Antenucci and long shots from outside the box. We need to work on other attacking options.

Finally Adryan. Would have loved to see him get a goal because he answers the above dilemma. He was making chances from nothing. Getting beat in a local derby didn't seem like the ideal time to debut a Brazilian youngster but he shrugged the pressure off and played very well. I think we should play him behind a lone striker, possible in a 4-2-3-1 formation.


Join the debate and discuss you views on the Rotherham game on the forums.


Rotherham Line-up
Collin, Skarz, Arnason, Hall (Taylor 45), Frecklington, Revell, Green, Richardson, Pringle (Smallwood 80), Morgan, Derbyshire (Clarke-Harris 62)
Unused Subs: Loach, Broadfoot, Bowery, Swift

Leeds United Line-up
Silvestri, Berardi, Pearce, Bellusci, Warnock, Austin, Bianchi (Morison 88), Mowatt, Cook (Adryan 62), Antenucci, Doukara (Sharp 76)
Unused Subs: S Taylor, Byram, Cooper, Sloth
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