Good Morning. It's Monday 12th August, and here are the Leeds Utd headlines
It only takes one shot on target
Nottingham Forest's scrappy equaliser twelve minutes from time knocked Leeds of the top pirch leaving both fans and players frustrated at not being able to keep Forests only shot on target from crossing the goal line.
Let's take a look at the Championship's top clubs and how they fared in all disciplines.
Tackles
1 Hull City 31 #HCAFC
2 Cardiff City 27 #CCFC
3 Blackburn Rovers 23 #Rovers
4 Leeds United 21 #LUFC
= Middlesbrough 21 #Boro
6 Bristol City 19 #BristolCity
= Sheffield Wednesday 19 #SWFC
8 Wigan Athletic 16 #WAFC
Aerial success
1 Cardiff City 67% #CCFC
2 Birmingham City 65% #BCFC
3 Barnsley 61% #BarnsleyFC
4 Reading 60% #ReadingFC
5 QPR 58% #QPR
6 Swansea City 56% #Swans
7 Brentford 55% #BrentfordFC
8 Millwall 55% #MillwallFC
Second week in a row Leeds have not featured in aerial success!
Passing accuracy %
1 West Bromwich Albion 88% #WBA
2 Fulham 83% #FFC
= Reading 83% #ReadingFC
4 Derby County 81% #DCFC
5 Leeds United 80% #LUFC
= QPR 80% #QPR
= Stoke City 80% #SCFC
8 Barnsley 78% #BarnsleyFC
= Bristol City 78% #BristolCity
Possession
1 West Bromwich Albion 72% #WBA
2 Leeds United 68% #LUFC
3 Barnsley 64% #BarnsleyFC
= Reading 64% #ReadingFC
5 Luton Town 63% #LTFC
= QPR 63% #QPR
7 Fulham 60% #FFC
8 Derby County 59% #DCFC
Shots on target
1 Sheffield Wednesday 7 #SWFC
2 Wigan Athletic 6 #WAFC
3 Bristol City 5 #BristolCity
= Hull City 5 #HCAFC
= Middlesbrough 5 #Boro
= Preston North End 5 #PNEFC
= QPR 5 #QPR
Leeds had 4 shots on target
Total shots
1 Derby County 17 #DCFC
= QPR 17 #QPR
3 Cardiff City 16 #CCFC
= Preston North End 16 #PNEFC
= Sheffield Wednesday 16 #SWFC
6 Hull City 14 #HCAFC
=Leeds United 14 #LUFC
= Middlesbrough 14 #Boro
Although Leeds did not fare too well with shots on target or aerial success, they are the only Championship club to feature in four of the disciplines! What do you read into the stats?
Is Nketiah the answer?
Apart from the magnificent role Harrison is playing on the left wing, who else is conjuring up opportunities for Bamford? The chances Bamford had, he was in the right place at the right time, he struck the post and narrowly missed a lob. For those of you saying that Bamford is not good enough, if this were the case, why is he predicted to be the highest goal scorer in the Championship (behind Mitrovic) with the Bookies? Will Bielsa play both Bamford and Nketiah together?
Meanwhile Gunners boss Unai Emery has been speaking to the press about Eddie Nketiah and how he wants his young starlet to play 90 minutes every week (every Sunday apparently).
“With Eddie Nketiah, my first decision was not to let him leave,”
“But after he spoke with me and [considering] the possibility of how many matches he is going to play with us, I said to him I could give him a lot of minutes this year but maybe he can improve more playing regularly 90 minutes each Sunday with Leeds.
"Our objective with him is: 'play and come back here, we want to be with you in the future.' “It's the same with other young players.”
Is Bielsa becoming too transparent?
Long before 11.30 on Saturday Morning when the Leeds team was revealed, I'm sure most of us would have placed good money on Bielsa keeping the same team that beat Bristol City on the opening game of the season. Why? Bielsa never changes a winning team! Surely, its easier to play against a side, when you already know who you are going to be playing against? Do we have a strong enough squad that it doesn't matter if our opposition know how we are going to line up?
I remember reading David O'Leary's 'Leeds United on trial, and despite my hatred for the guy for his (alleged) dealing with agents costing the club millions; one thing he said that made a lot of sense was saying sometimes the pretty football won't work, and you have to dig deep and show a gritty resolve'! Do Leeds have the players to 'mix it' when they need to in order to close a game out?