Meslier - 7. Good on the ball. Made some decent saves near the end. Bogle - 9. Best game in a Leeds shirt. Got an assist for Dan James. Constant threat down the right and some really good link up play. Defensively sound. Man of the match. Rodon - 6. Form has dipped slightly but still marshaling the defence reasonably well. Needs to sort his headed clearances out. Struijk - 9. Back to defensive form after a couple of under par showings. Our main threat from set pieces and unlucky not to score. World class save on the line. Byram - 8. Back to back quality games. Only taken off due to his inability to play minutes. A real quality finish to get us going and was always a threat going forward. Not much defending to do but was always in the right place at the right time when needed. Tanaka - 8. Not as dominant as the weekend but still bossed the midfield battle. Rothwell - 8. Some real quality set pieces in there tonight alongside another impressive performance. Aaronson - 6. Great energy, great movement but too many wrong decisions and poorly executed passes. Might need a spell on the bench to liven him up a bit. Gnonto - 8. Busy. Caused plenty of problems. His ability to drift deep and then drive forward might be worth a go at 10. Solomon - 8. His form is starting to show as his fitness improves. Quick feet and acceleration caused the full back problems all night. Piroe - 8. Much more involved tonight and got another goal. Link up play was decent and should maybe have added a 2nd goal late on. Subs. Wober - 7. A promising cameo at left back and some important minutes banked. Looked rusty but got behind the Luton defence a couple of times. James - 7. Continued on from Sundays performance with a goal and a real quality performance. Joseph - 6. Did okay but didn't really grab his chance. Lively though. Guilavogui - 6. Saw the game out and kept it simple. Ramazani - 7. Looked like he'd never been away. A really good last few minutes. Farke - 9. Rotated his squad and got the win at a canter. Subs worked.
Agree with all of that except, for me, Rothwell was MOTM. Also think Ramazani will have a big part to play if he stays fit and I would try Gnonto instead of Aaronson and start James and Solomon in the next home game, that would be some attack
To be honest I thought the Man of the match could have gone to a few tonight. Alot of the lads played at a high level. Struijk, Bogle, Byram, Tanaka, Rothwell, Gnonto and Solomon were all very good and I wouldn't argue with any of them getting the nod.
That was the best performance of the season I’ve seen so far. We seemed to move the ball quicker despite the packed defence. Good to see Farke rotating the players a bit earlier but that might reflect on how dominant we were. Hard to believe that they were in the premier league last season, it was damage limitation from them from practically the start of the game.
We played very well but Luton it has to be said were pants. Blackburn away at the weekend will be a different proposition. They’ve hit a bit of form and a draw would be a decent result. Keep the same starting eleven with the game changers to come on from the bench if we’re chasing it.
eustace has got Blackburn well organised - not much of an attacking threat but they’re able to nick tight games as they did tonight. Hopefully they’ll sack him and replace him with Rooney before the weekend
We’re doing great, so this is not a whinge just a ‘where we could do better.’ On paper we have a great defensive record, personally I think this is due to dominating the ball. It does concern me that with so little opportunity opposition seem to get clear cut chances every game from crosses. Swansea took a few of them… set piece, plus 3rd goal. Luton had a couple of good chances. It just feels like we can pump loads of crosses in and rarely get on the end of them (high or low), the opposition have very few and do. So is this inefficiency on our part relative to the opposition.. or just typical fan angst where I notice it more because it’s ‘Leedsy’
As much as fans will hate this i think Farkeball is just a much more patient version of Bielsaball. When we have possession we have 4 up front with Piroe,winger A, winger B and Aaronson all trying to find pockets of space or run in behind. The two holding midfielders push forward within 35 yards of the goal, the full backs essentially provide the width. That's how we pen teams in to their own third. The danger is that if we lose possession cheaply then we only really have the 2 centre halves back so our vulnerability comes from counter attacks and being outnumbered at the back. That in turn leads to opposition teams getting really good chances when they do eventually break on us. We tend to have an abundance of half chances due to the packed defence we come up against. Bielsaball was even more susceptible to counters if we are honest.
I agree with all of that…and Marshball too, though different in possession, was a more aggressive version of the same when out of possession. Either way, sides that ‘pen’ teams in are susceptiible on the counter. That’s just a quid pro quo of the brand of football. My point was more about how - with our two big lump centre halves - and decent sized full backs, the opposition still seem to get to the ball first from balls into the box (free kicks, corners, crosses after slow build up) than happens when it’s us attacking.
Don’t think Gnonto has got a good enough engine to play in Aaronson’s position, might be wrong but he does go missing on occasions.
Good point. Aaronson is a duracell bunny. Gnonto more explosive, different attributes physiclly and skill set wise. I wonder whether with 2 holding midfielders Gnonto is more of an option at 10, than with Tanaka/Rothwell combo we currently have. But it all depends on the team set up,and the roles they are asked to fill. No doubt that Aaronsson is going to be the top presser for the team in that position. It's why he was signed in the first place. I would like to see Gnonto as a 10 but again, maybe it's better that he comes off his wing to do it in patches during a game (as we have seen) rather than do it from the off. Guess that's why we have a manager.
We were more susceptible to the counter under Bielsa because of the man for man marking tactic so the players were spread and not such a condensed unit.
Not sure I completely agree regarding Marsch, he liked to press and play narrow, which is why he was the completely wrong choice to replace Bielsa, as Marsch believed you were less vulnerable from attacks from wing positions.
I’m just not sold on Aaronson, i think he flatters to deceive. This Duracell bunny thing, running around a lot makes him look like he is playing better than he actually is, he still loses the ball a lot, runs up blind alleys and is as weak as piss.
Not sold on him either... but it can be hard as a fan (including myself here) to appreciate the benefit of someone who works really hard off the ball and who's constant movement stretches defences, tires them and creates space for others. There is a reason he gets picked. Maybe the guys who watch what he does and spend hours analysing performances see things we don't?
His views on the game with the ball were polar opposite to Bielsa's. Off the ball they had differences but were much more similar. The reason for picking him as a manager, was the reliance on a very high-energy game... so 'in theory' they wanted similar skill sets in players. There was logic to it even if it didn't work out. People never wanted to see this, due to the Bielsa love-in and Ted Lasso press conferences, but we had some staggering bad luck in games under Marsh. Catastrophic individual defensive errors, shocking open goal misses... and we stifled the opposition and created better chances in many games we subsequently drew or lost. He absolutely had his faults... and I didn't love the football myself... but talk to people who understand the game, who aren't Leeds fans, and they recognise performances didn't reflect results. I know bud... the table never lies
I had nothing against him, my point was more that he was a poor choice because we had so many wide players as Bielsa liked the “overload” form of attack. JM liked to play narrow so he didn’t really start with players suited for that. They always seemed to be too close to each other to move the ball.
Thought the ref was very decent last night, got a few things wrong, Ramizani's booking for one, but on the whole did a good job, was fair on both sides, probably the best one we've had this season. I'm not the biggest fan of loan signings, as I often perseve them as not giving their all, with a few exceptions, but Solomon can't be accused of that, you could see how much his 2 goals meant to him on Sunday, think he said thank you half a dozen times to James for the first assist, his post match interview, he spoke as he was part of the squad, not just here for the season and last night too, his commitment was excellent.
