You know what, I'm not embarrassed by that scoreline. Leeds took their chances well, we didn't. For a while it looked like we could pull something out of the bag but the fourth Leeds goal sent the three points back to Elland Road. With a little bit better finishing we get something from the game but it wasn't to be. We worked hard, made some mistakes but also did a lot of good stuff as well. Chin up and on to the next one
An entertaining game, and their swift counter attacks caught our fresh subs napping. Most teams will be pulled apart by Leeds in this league. Difference is their top class forwards finishing and taking their chances. No disgrace, we will bounce back.
Bit of a sickener that. The difference overall was the quality of Leeds’ finishing. We’ve not done the transfer business we needed to do so far.
The gap between the two sides wasn't immense,so I take more positives than negatives from that game.Have to tighten up defensively though.We won't score three goals very often and still lose.
Last home game of last season, there were 5 goals in the 1st half hour - all for us. Good attacking performance today, shame Burns missed the chance at 1-0. Defensively, we were a bit all over the place, tackling was weak but it’s our 1st defeat for ages and we move on. It’s clear that we more than belong at this level and the future looks bright for the club
It was the first side to really do their homework on us and expose our weaknesses. Switch the play and work the ball well and it’s easy to pull us out of shape. I thought the players deserved a lot of credit for getting on top of the situation after the third goal and staying in the game.
I haven't seen much of the game but watched extended highlights and think we can take a lot of positives from this. Sounds like we were the better team overall and there's no shame losing to a team with £70 million fire power upfront at any level. Saying that from the highlights it did look like defensively we were poor (without making awful mistakes) and that's probably the most vulnerable we've looked defensively in a long time. What I will say though is had Walton and Donacien been fit we would've won that game, I think 2 or 3 of those goals wouldn't have happened had they been on the pitch. Additionally whilst it sounded like Jackson had a good game I don't think you can discount how much more balanced and variety there is to our game with Hirst in the team, our play tends to be alot slower without him in the team. So my conclusion is we've come up against an expensive quality forward line as a league 1 team who've lost 3 first team players to injury. I think whether we can avoid big long term injuries will be the difference between us being in the playoffs and finishing mid table this season, with our first choice 11 I think we can be a match for anyone and even our second string I think can compete at this level it's just not at the higher level and to be fair not many teams even the top top teams can replace like for like. A couple of observations about a couple of players. Both Chaplin and Broadhead have been quiet the past couple of games... I do tend to think they are what I would call 'moments' players, both have high levels of quality and can be game changes but neither are going to control a game and sometimes can have really quiet spells, this is not necessarily a criticism just an observation on the type of player they are. I have said it for a while now I would like us to sign a no.10 who can compete with Chaplin or come on to replace him and can dominate the ball and hold onto it. As for Burns even though he hasn't hit the form of his first season for us, he's still in my view such an important player for us, even though he doesn't have the skill or intelligence of a Broadhead, he's so effective at was he does and he contributes through assists and goals, even if he's not having a great game he still gives the full back a hard time which is a rare quality to find in wingers.
I think if you watch the 90 minutes you probably come to some different conclusions. Jackson played an absolute blinder today. And for me that was Burns’ best performance in a Town shirt. Tellingly, Hutchinson comes on and the threat down the right side evaporates for us. Chappers and Broadhead were lively and a constant threat. It was the best we’ve played so far this season overall. We’ve been undone by a piece of absolute quality - then we’ve made a couple of errors and after that it just wasn’t to be our day.
Jackass certainly never played a blinder, he done ok for Jackass but we missed Hirst bullying and ball retention!! I thought Chaplin was quiet. Burns was lively, just his quality of final ball and decision making is not always the best. Play like that with Walton in goal and we win most games this season!!
Hladky should have done better with the spilled ball - Walton’s the better shot stopper - but we should also have had a better anticipation to that from the defenders. He pulled out plenty of top saves and he gives us more on the ball and with distribution than Walton. Davis’ mistake was an absolute howler and such a shame. We will get used to the level in quality and adjust our mindset, no doubt. Not many of our high balls into the box found a Town shirt. We weren’t getting enough bodies in the box and we weren’t picking players out. These are both areas where we need to keep progressing in training or upgrade some players. We are introducing some new aspects to our game. McKenna is not going to stand still. But we need to do some business in the market to bring in a wide right player and striking options to be in with any chance of a top two finish - Leicester are taking one of those spots.
Not huge mistakes from Hladky who I think is a very capable deputy but I also think he couldve done slightly better on the 1st and 2nd goals. First goal he looks flat footed and the ball goes very close to him albeit it was a decent finish and second goal he probably could've come to claim, if you look at Burgess it's like he's expecting his goalkeeper to because he's not attempting to go for the ball, I'm fairly sure Walton would've claimed that one albeit he is exceptional at claiming balls like that. I think Burgess, Woolfenden, Davis could've been stronger but they were up against good players I just feel if Donacien was in and Walton I don't think a few of those goals (maybe even all) would've happened. I think you can also see we're not quite so cohesive at the back, as we've said Walton takes so much pressure off the defenders from his presence and claiming balls it's probably a little more unsettling especially for the CBs. Agree about the getting men in the box part, always felt it was a bit of a weakness until we had Hirst (although Norwood and Bonne were good at it), we don't have many players attacking the ball in the box and trying to get across defenders which means we're not going to get on the end of things but it also creates space for others. What we generally have been good at and this was also reflected in the goals yesterday is having players running from deep onto cut backs and finding those pockets of space. Not huge problems at the moment and for me even though we started off well last season I think we look a more dangerous and cohesive team already this season. It wasn't until the last few months of the season that I thought we really clicked especially from an attacking perspective and I think we're already ahead of that this season. As long as we can stick clear of too many injuries I think we'll do well.
I remain quite optimistic and we are capable after our first 4 games of being top 6. In spite of their ridiculously expensive forward line, (£70m!?) apart from one goal of individual brilliance, we played well but gave away 3 soft goals today. The 3 changes didn’t really work, Williams was hardly on the pitch when they swiftly broke and scored. If we had we not made those three changes, perhaps we’d have got a point, the three coming off were playing well at that point too, and it disrupted our game and we were the one’s in control. Jackson’s pace is useful but I still fail to see where Ladapo fits. He looks out of his depth. Chaplin and Broadhead will have better days. They missed Hirst. Lots of positives, lessons to be learnt, and we need to give time for new players like Hutchison to be coached into our system. Lets hope we can find a suitable CF we urgently need, but tbh, doubt we will find one of the right calibre. Quick fixes dont usually work!
I think we are now seeing the negatives of having a strong squad, last season it worked a treat but as time goes on, these players like Leigh and Edwards who have been great coming on are wanting to leave. And we've replaced them with loan players 1 who hasn't played any senior football and the other who has only played one competitive game in a year...they're going to take time to get up to speed. Both Leigh and Edwards just slot into the team and do a great job coming off the bench. The closest striker we have who could replace Hirst is Ahadme in terms of style but he was clearly a gamble and McKenna isn't confident he can contribute. I think Ladapo is decent coming on to consolidate a lead but not particularly great when we're chasing a game
I think we've got to be patient and trust the process.How many people ,towards the end of last year, were questioning KMc's ability to deliver promotion?It may take a second transfer window again this Season to really reap the rewards.The start we had was unprecedented,most of us would have bitten your hand off for nine points from those first four games.
We really missed Hirst and Walton today, Hirst im sure would have put at least one of our missed chances away and Walton wouldnt have been flat footed and rooted to the spot for their second goal, he would have moved forward and caught the ball before it reached our far post. But it must be remembered that we were up against a team that was playing against Man City, and Arsenal, etc last season and we were playing the likes of Forest green, Morecambe, Stanley, and Co and not facing a front three worth £70M, but we gave a good account of ourselves and i enjoyed watching the game, and although i know its early days but there must be some doubts about the ability of Burns to perform in this division and Broadheads stamina as he seems to fade out of the game early in the second half, but we kept going to the final whistle and as McK said there are plenty of positives.
That’s all true but it was still a disappointing game to lose because apart from the final tally (there are no points awarded for good football) we were at least as good as Leeds on the day so that gives us all the ifs, buts and maybes that wouldn’t come into it if we’d been played off the park. It really could have gone either way.
Burns I thought got some crosses in that he wouldn’t have managed to get in last season. They were to no-one, but I think he can keep improving. Definitely thought we need to make a signing to compete for that position. There’s no use in worrying about Walton. Hladky’s the man for now, we need to back him.
I totally agree,but thinking back to September/October last Season we were regularly playing teams off the park in terms of possession stats but lacked the killer edge to finish them off,whereas come March/April we were basically unstoppable.We might have been good for a draw yesterday but I'd far rather we got the three points in the previous games where we weren't at our best.As I said earlier the fact that we matched Leeds so closely was a vast positive from yesterday.
