Barring Traoré’s sitter, we didn’t really threaten. Even after Leeds went to ten men, we were content to pass the ball around lazily. Lots of players doing their best impression of the crab. Zero shots on target at home against ten men in a local derby in front of a near sell-out crowd is poor. We defended well though which is a plus.
Twine is struggling with the big price tag that Burnley paid for him, fans expectations are also too high and this is affecting his game. Twine had a great couple of seasons with the MK Dons in league 1, but the step up to the Championship is bigger than people think. Twine needs to be coming on from the bench or taken out of the team for a couple of weeks. LR needs to manage him well.
What's happened to Furlong, if LR doesn't fancy Vinagre for this or that game? Or halfway through one like against Coventry?
Furlong is seen as a developer. Realistically it's between Vinagre, Greaves and Coyle at the minute for the LB spot, but then does Christie look like the old Christie for 90 minutes yet - so Coyle likely needed on the right some of the time for now anyway. Coyle did well on the left against Cov and didn't really let anyone down tonight either.
Well, he was warming up before the game. If he’s not available to play, why bother having him on the bench? Could have two keepers on the bench like we did a few games ago.
Morton... It's not even a question of just his quality, but he shows himself for the ball every single time he can. Others were largely anonymous tonight and they don't make themselves available for the pass anywhere near as often as they should. Lokilo... I rate him. He's the one constantly trying to stretch them and it creates openings for others. In his first attack tonight he did what Philogene struggled to do all night - get to the byline and get a cross in. I think he deserves a start. Too many occasions tonight we looked sideways and backwards rather than forwards. Round of applause for Allsop though, he kept us in it. Leeds were the better side, but that's also probably our worst performance of the season as we didn't help ourselves either. Should have nicked it too, but its a tough one point gained and probably deserved too.
Traore was last game too, I have to assume he wasn't fit or he would have come on instead of McLaughlin.
I'm sure if he wanted to bring another fullback on then he wouldn't have chosen a centre half. He went to a 3 with Christie for Lokilo a few minutes earlier and Macca just was a better fit for the last few mins.
Then traore has no business on the bench either, any player not fit enough to come on and contribute shouldn't be in the squad, sinak was on the bench against Leicester along with 2 keepers ( I think it was that game ) it's just pointless stupidity from LR and a total waste of a place on the bench. Put a fit youngster on the bench if we are really struggling that much for fit bodies
You have to acknowledge the gap between quality of individuals though we were the better 'team'. They have players worth 3.5 times the value of ours and we narrowed the gap massively by the way we played. Yes, the red helped massively, but had we lost today then it would have been expected by most neutrals and most in the game probably also. It's a point gained in the grander scheme, so let's look forward to Sunday.
We have 5 subs from. 9. Clubs are absolutely using the bench as part of rehab and reintegration. They have been ever since you were allowed more listed on the bench than actual changes and it's even more commonplace now you have 5 from 9.
Can't believe Liam stayed with the same 424 formation that didn't work against Coventry. Once we made changes against both Coventry and Leeds we looked miles better. I'd like to see Morton and Tufan start and put Twine and Slater on the bench. Also Lokilo deserves a start, just not sure who I'd drop for him. Also gotta laugh at Liams positivity in his interview.. he somehow managed to make zero shots on target a positive... it's not good enough Liam, your allowed to say it.
