Leeds Utd v Nottingham Forest - Match Thread

[Jay]

I must say, today felt more like a loss than anything considering how Leeds dominated play. Forest really got lucky with their goal, i guess a little bit of karma was involved from last season too.
Leeds played well for the most part, Kiko had very little to do, but his distribution seemed better than against Bristol.
Dallas' early mistake could have seen us go behind early, Bamford was a little wasteful, KP was sloppy in his tackles at times...
Its a good team, and they play well mostly. They just lack that bit of quality, but the idea is there. I just hope and pray that its enough to go one better than last season.
Its going to be close again!

[whiteswan]

It still comes down to us not scoring enough goals from all the posession we have for me.....we wouldn't be talking about the Forrest goal had we already been 3 or 4 up when they scored

[Jay]

It still comes down to us not scoring enough goals from all the posession we have for me.....we wouldn't be talking about the Forrest goal had we already been 3 or 4 up when they scored

Agreed 100%

[SG90]

But what chances did we create today? We only had 4 on target and the Phillips one was going wide anyway. We didn't test the keeper enough from distance, given how nervous he was. I said the same last season, but we are obsessed at trying the score perfect team goals and passing out wide, rather than just shooting.

The one where Pablo put it straight at the keeper was an example, put his foot through it and it's 2-0, rather than delicately trying to pass it in.

[whiteswan]

But what chances did we create today? We only had 4 on target and the Phillips one was going wide anyway. We didn't test the keeper enough from distance, given how nervous he was. I said the same last season, but we are obsessed at trying the score perfect team goals and passing out wide, rather than just shooting.

The one where Pablo put it straight at the keeper was an example, put his foot through it and it's 2-0, rather than delicately trying to pass it in.

Exactly. We have most of the posession, just dont seem to be able to convert it into goals. It's so frustrating. We play lovely football, have some smashing players....I just hope the goals will come....

[Irish Ian]

I think Costa will make a difference, he did look decent today when he ran at players.

I was a bit frustrated with Dallas too in conceding the corner from which they scored. Two reasons.

1. Mindset. He was tracking back well but didnt take his chance to put the ball out and instead made the block at the corner flag. If he was playing for Northern Ireland that was cleared for a throw in earlier in the piece. But at Leeds we would rather retrieve the ball if possible. Dallas knew what had happened moments earlier when Forest had a great chance to score from a corner.
2. When you play players out of their natural position expect their decisions not to be always the best.

On the other flank Douglas knew when go put it into row Z and when to try and recycle the play.

Overall Dallas did have a decent game though.

[dezzy]

Gaping hole in the number 10 position, Bamford had a good game, but seems to get isolated and has to drop wide or deep to get the ball, forshaw and Klich don’t work together for me, we need somebody to fill in when Bamford drops off.
We don’t look threatening from crosses, we need to work other options a bit more.
We looked more assured at the back, apart from the goal. I think the longer the team has together the better we’ll become, our pre season was always going to put us on the back foot

[SG90]

I can only hope it's a reversal of last year and the poor performances come earlier on and we improve with games. It's frustrating as we actually had options to change it up, unlike last year, but we didn't use them. Clarke or Costa on early in the second half or Shack after we went 1-0 and we'd have probably got the second.

[Cjay]

Think the criticism of PB is a bit unfair tbh.

His all round game was good, worked hard and some fantastic touches (pass round the corner to Harrison or Klich was awesome) and the touch before the lob was Premier league class.

Bit more luck today and the one off the bar goes in. Cross was deflected, awkward height, just behind him, no pace on the cross, he did well to direct it towards goal.

The lob if thay goes in people would be raving about the finish, but as he missed it becomes "he should have scored".

How can it be both ways? It was either a difficult chance that required a class finish or it wasnt?

[1964white]

Exactly. We have most of the possession, just dont seem to be able to convert it into goals. It's so frustrating. We play lovely football, have some smashing players....I just hope the goals will come....

I said to friends around me after 60 minutes Swannie

"I'm starting to feel all the same frustrations as last season"

[The Subhuman]

Think the criticism of PB is a bit unfair tbh.

His all round game was good, worked hard and some fantastic touches (pass round the corner to Harrison or Klich was awesome) and the touch before the lob was Premier league class.

Bit more luck today and the one off the bar goes in. Cross was deflected, awkward height, just behind him, no pace on the cross, he did well to direct it towards goal.

The lob if thay goes in people would be raving about the finish, but as he missed it becomes "he should have scored".

How can it be both ways? It was either a difficult chance that required a class finish or it wasnt?

I agree but by the same token, if you concede that for today you have to concede that for most of last season..The goals "missed then and indeed last week would all have been great goals if scored, I said all last season it wasn't down to poor finishing but poor luck. We never actually get that many clean chances, there's usually a touch or deflection or something first that makes the chance that much harder and it applied to Roofe as much as Bamford. Every goal I saw Pukki score last season was a clean, almost can't miss chance. He wasn't a better striker than Roofe/Bamford, just a luckier one.

Bamford did take one touch too many for his first chance today, it couldn't have sat nicer but he wanted to get closer which bought the defender and keeper into play when he was heavy handed with it..Agree would have been a cracking finish but the chances of scoring receded a lot with that touch

[1964white]

All the frustrations of last season were evident once again. We dominated the game failing to turn our dominance into goals & there is always the fear we will gift or concede a soft goal as was the case once again. Forest broke into ER & stole a point

Positives

Pablo's superb finish
Klich's pass
Phillips passes down the channels & the long pass for Bamford's lob
Our usual style/control of play
We created chances
Our two young loanees Harrison & White continue to impress.
The improvement of Dallas
Costa looked lively
Kiko's distribution
Douglas better today

Negatives

We should have won
Missed chances, we need to kill games off
Forest's scruffy equaliser
No clean sheet
Less effective when Harrison was subbed
Alioski looks rusty
Poor referee

Ratings

7 Casilla
7 Dallas
8 White
7 Cooper
7 Douglas
8 Phillips
8 Hernandez
7 Forshaw
7 Klich
8 Harrison
7 Bamford
Subs
6 Alioski
7 Costa

[gessa]

Think Alioski was the wrong substition , twice now coming on and the left side was weaker.

[HarryofOz]

A mishit effort by Bamford hits the woodwork and stays out, a mishit effort by them rolls into the goal - the difference between winning and not winning.

[60sUnited]

Its sad really, a clinical striker and maybe a back up centre half and imo we would definitely be top two contenders. As it stands top 6 maybe with shed loads of luck, so near and yet so far !! Forest are very average lets not kid ourselves, yet they came away with a point, very worrying, but overall its enjoyable to watch but not promotion class.

[Cjay]

I agree but by the same token, if you concede that for today you have to concede that for most of last season..The goals "missed then and indeed last week would all have been great goals if scored, I said all last season it wasn't down to poor finishing but poor luck. We never actually get that many clean chances, there's usually a touch or deflection or something first that makes the chance that much harder and it applied to Roofe as much as Bamford. Every goal I saw Pukki score last season was a clean, almost can't miss chance. He wasn't a better striker than Roofe/Bamford, just a luckier one.

Bamford did take one touch too many for his first chance today, it couldn't have sat nicer but he wanted to get closer which bought the defender and keeper into play when he was heavy handed with it..Agree would have been a cracking finish but the chances of scoring receded a lot with that touch

I'm a fan of stats and xG and all that and you arent so we are bound to disagree on chances and things.

Do think that luck hasnt been our friend the last 12 months.

As you say Pukki last season just always seemed to get 100% luck when needed (like against us with those deflections).

Or Forest today that shot just before Grabbam was more of a threat to the linesman but it hit Grabban and landed perfectly.

Bamford's shot hit the underside of the bar and span out, its those little things that go against us more often then not.

[Cjay]

Watching Quest and the amount of set piece goals and cross goals, worries me greatly.

Bottom line.

How will we cope when Millwall hoof crosses into big Matt Smith?

Or WBA into their collection of 6ft plus giants?

Or Cardiff?

Boro?

So many teams in this league use set pieces as a vital weapon, to discount the need for commanding players in our team is very naive imo. All the more bizarre because i remember MB saying this, teams use set pieces a lot.

We had a real problem from set pieces last season with PJ who no matter what anyone says now he was statistically in the top % for aerial duels won.

Cooper and Berardi weren't and from what ive seen of Ben White for all he has done well he wont be either.

Genuinely not sure our coaching staff have grasped the need for height and power in this league. Obviously it isnt the be all and end all but if the cross is good, a with everything being equal, a commanding 6ft4 player will beat a 6ft one 9/10.

A team which has 3 or 4 players 2 or 3 inches taller then their opponents will beat them in the air more often then not, you can coach and coach and coach but it matters not if the cross is good

People point to Fabio Cannavaro and say "yeah but he was short".

Yes he was, he was also world class, he also was in sides that had beastly teammates like Lillian Thuram, Andrea Barzagli, Alessandro Nesta etc.

Cannavaro was weaker in the air, as he would be at 5ft9 but he played in teams that had other aerially strong players.and he had natural world class talent, positioning, reading of the game.

We dont have that.

[The Subhuman]

Anybody wanna work out how many goals we conceded from corners last season..Today White deals with that if he isn't pulled back and we keep a clean sheet. Other way round and it's a stone cold pen

[Irish Ian]

First half of the season we were very vulnerable from corners, but by January we seemed to improve.

It itsnt all about height, some of our team aren't powerfully built.

[Cjay]

Anybody wanna work out how many goals we conceded from corners last season..Today White deals with that if he isn't pulled back and we keep a clean sheet. Other way round and it's a stone cold pen

Cant tell you exact numbers anymore.

MB admitted we had a problem defending set pieces i think early 2019 (cant remember the game)

He mentioned how they spent a lot of time trying to correct it on the training ground and then highlighted that if you take the set piece goals out we are one of the best defensively.

Edit . .Bolton in February he said we had a real problem from set pieces but said unfortunately its not a new problem.

Fairly sure he said it even earlier to, beginnof January maybe.