The one thing with Bamford is that he keeps getting himself in great positions to score. That's actually quite hard to do. It's the conversion rate that let's him and us down.
It's a frustrating result but a strong performance. We need a bit of luck this season. The last season I thought we rode our luck was the Gary Monk season. We were outplayed plenty of times but kept sneaking results. I remember us not getting a kick at Newcastle and somehow in the last minute Wood scored in probably our only attack. This scenario played out against us plenty last season. Please not again.
When Leeds are ****, then I don't mind admitting that we are ****, I really don't! But Bielsa's Leeds are sublime and promotion would be easy if we get a bit of help from lady luck. I always seem to finish watching our games cursing our luck, or a lack of decisions by the officials or a stupid mistake by Cooper.
Are we unlucky or just flawed in some way that I cannot see? I mean I played at a low level of football and I am convinced I played with strikers who would love to get the chances that we create. Bamford is more than capable of finishing....just not in a white shirt it seems!
Drives me crazy.
Get Arsenal lad in Tuesday or Edmonson.
I’ve had this debate countless times with people. You will have people argue that if you don’t take your chances then it’s nothing to do with luck, but reality is it’s both in my view
1. Inefficiency in terms of consistently not taking chances, or consistently not putting in a quality balls when they’re needed, isn’t luck, it’s quality of player. you could say the team are unlucky because they deserved better but if you have an inherent flaw in taking chances is that luck?
2. But on any given day, there’s bounce of the ball, decisions going against you, opposition striker shinning one in, your’s shinning one wide - or a mistake. That’s luck (though mistakes could be attributed to player quality). Individual games are often decided on luck. It should balance out over a season. Doesn’t always.
Last year we played the best football in the league, dominated most games but fell foul of both 1 and 2 in my view.
Bielsa plays a brand of football that values possession and the philosophy of team play over individuals. By default, we pin teams back with the ball and with the press when we don’t have it... so we always operate in tight spaces making it harder to break teams down. The opposition will have fewer chances but often better ones as they have space to exploit in transition.
Additional point is we are a small side, because we value ball players over grunt - that gives us an intrinsic disadvantage at set pieces.
So, it’s inevitable we will statistically dominate games without always winning them.
So a long answer! A shorter one would be, in my view, some luck, some inherent flaws.
I don't care what you had for tea Mighty.
