This was a good game, some say a brilliant game but I'm sticking with a good game. Stoke came at us early, probably to try and catch us off guard, but Stoke also throttled our play from time to time.There was a period where Stoke throttled us for about 15 mins, this slowed our build up and kept us in our own half for while. 5 minutes from halftime saw Pablo on the receiving end of a pass, and a long, pin point accurate first time pass sent Dallas on a run to score our first. I think that first goal took the wind out of Stokes sails Second half saw us up a couple of gears and we really started to dominate and control the game, we were pretty much all over Stoke, by rights we should've had more than the 3 goals we got. A second half goal, 5 minutes after kickoff by Alioski seemed to rip the sails off Stokes boat, and it was a steep uphill battle for them as we continued to control and dominate. Arguable, but not so sure if Bamford was crossing across goal or trying a shot, it didn't seem the cleanest of passes. Later in the game Alioski and Bamford changed positions. Alioski picked up the ball on left, one touch and a shot saw Alioski's shot saved and rebound off Federici, only for Bamford to slot home the rebound. After going 3-0 up, complacency began to creep into our passing game, especially towards the end, it was slow, sloppy and had errors. Even our fans were shouting "we want 4". Other stronger teams will punish us for complacency. 3-0, and back to top of championship table 2 points clear. Still early in season though. Short highlights.........again Bielsa post match. Dallas post match It's that kid again. Connor, post match comments, this twat nicked my line. Federici post match comments
Not sure I agree about your complacency thing and about the fans calling for a forth let's be honest if we scored a forth they would then call for a fifth( would we not). Pleased to see we were not trying to walk the ball into the net every time 21 shots 10 on target = better performance.
I watched the game live on ESPN+ it was great listening to commentary from a neutral who just enjoyed football and commentated on what he saw rather than prejudged conception. “Well oiled machine”, “Pablo tearing defences apart in this division” and “You can see why Leeds apparently slapped a £30m price tag on Phillips” were a few he came out with. The team played well, Pablo seemed to be wide left for the first 10-15 minutes, not sure if he just had a licence to roam or it was planned and swiftly changed. We had a few very stray passes Pablo included but that’s easily forgiven when you see some of the ones that came off. White had another great game, Forshaw and Phillips were obviously told to be more defensive, Berardi let nobody down, Dallas going forward was great, defensively not so but... I’ve a feeling he was told to attack and it was down to Berardi, Phillips and White to sort it out if he got caught out. Stoke made 5 changes and a new formation which I think threw us for the first 10 minutes but we still dominated, 65% possession and we were the away team, 21 shots 10 on target, we limited them to 2 on target and we kept a clean sheet. Costa had a great shot saved towards the end after creating the chance himself, Eddie set Forshaw up for what should have been a straightforward goal but he hit it too central and it caught the keepers knee. This could have been 5-0 but I’m happy with three. There is NO complacency, it was a hot day, we play a high pressing tempo game, part of that tactic is to take breathers when in possession and some of this is the sideways passing, the game was won, if the chance comes for 4 take it, we did try but no need to go he’ll for leather and burn out.
The fans were shouting "we want 4" during last 1/4 I think it was. It was on the youtube link that everyone else watched. Nothing wrong with the fans calling for a fifth if we scored a fourth.
Thanks for highlights. I wasn’t around yesterday to watch, depending on phone updates. I watched some of villa Everton Friday night and our football is way superior to the bang average stuff they produced. The interplay for our goals and other chances is a joy to watch and I suspect winning over many neutrals. Our failures at home last season against promotion rivals Norwich and blunts proved very costly. Next saturdays game is a chance to show we’ve learned from that
