Leeds Utd v Portsmouth Match Thread

[1964white]

West Brom favourites next week?

We need to put in a complete 90 minutes performance, with no spasmodic periods.

[1964white]

Portsmouth were poor and awful, a below average team who will be lucky to not be in the bottom three come seasons end. I just hope we don't finish anywhere near them.
But we were awful too after the first 15 mins, it was as if we've learnt nothing from last season, sitting back after going in front, letting teams gain the momentum and us hoping to hit them on the break, when we are incapable of breaking with any speed whatsoever, even with 2 flying wingers who should be scaring teams to death.
I know it's the first match but it's painful watching us do the same things as last season when we know it doesn't work.
Hey! hopefully I'm wrong and Portsmouth are indeed a very good team, and we did well to get a point.
Think I've talked myself around, "it'll all come out in the wash Mother" and so on.....

I don't think you are wrong, Father.

Portsmouth were poor, their all round game isn't great, had we took our chances they could have been five down in the first twenty minutes. I suspect Pompey will be fighting in the relegation zone come the end of the season.

Lang showed us how to shoot from distance with a fine strike for their second goal, you have to ask where were our two defensive midfielders to close his shot down. Our shooting from the edge of the box was poor!

[CHAPELALLMAN]

just got done watching the match. Was not able to watch it live today. Here are my thoughts.

We dominated possession, shots, shots on goal, and corner kicks.

We hit the crossbar 3 times in the first 15 min or so.

We scored first on a well taken PK by our Big Sexy Pirate. The PK was made possible by a very good run by Dan James into the box where he was fouled from behind.

We then gave up a very soft goal that should have been saved by Meslier. I think it was Rodon that made a poor clearance to set that up.

Another poor Rodon clearance led to a very well taken goal. I'll give them credit for that one.

Just after halftime Wilie Gnonto with a very nice goal. That one was all him.

At about the 71st min Farke made 3 subs. Aaronson and Piroe come on for the 2 wingers. Piroe takes the center mid role with Georginio moving to the RW. Rothwell also came on for Gruev. I don't necessarily have a problem with the changes as it's early in the season and fitness could still be an issue. But our shape completely changed. It became very narrow with Aaronson and Georginio coming inside. All of the width was coming from the fullbacks. It looked way too much like Jesse Marsch football for me.

Bamford comes on around the 80th minute for some reason. I would not have made that change as Joseph looked like he had plenty left in the tank. As it turned out Bamford had zero impact on the match.

They get a penalty in the 92nd minute. And I think it was a very questionable call. The contact between the players started well outside the box. And the grabbing continued into the box. A foul on Bogle ok. But the Referee should have awarded a free kick just outside the box.

Brenden Aaronson scores a great goal to tie it up just a couple minutes later. And every Leeds fan would have been happy for him. But....

Then Aaronson misses a clear and easy chance. He was one on one with the keeper from roughly the spot. And now he's right back on the shite list...

I'm going to cut Aaronson some slack on that one. After all, we hit the crossbar 3 times in the first half so....

Bottom line is we had plenty of chances and scored plenty of goals to win. This loss is down to poor defending, mostly by Joe Rodon, and a questionable PK decision. I expect things will get better.

Rodon was poor in the last few games of last season as well - hence us leaking lots of goals in the last 10 games, Isn't it time that he was benched and someone like Wober brought in ?

At the time people were putting Rodon's loss of form down to a hangover from the internationals, however it could be that he has now lost confidence. I would give Wober a chance.

[1964white]

Rodon was poor in the last few games of last season as well - hence us leaking lots of goals in the last 10 games, Isn't it time that he was benched and someone like Wober brought in ?

At the time people were putting Rodon's loss of form down to a hangover from the internationals, however it could be that he has now lost confidence. I would give Wober a chance.

I would play three at the back, Rodon, Wober & Struijk with one DM Ampadu to cover our wing-backs Bogle/Firpo defensive frailties.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

I would play three at the back, Rodon, Wober & Struijk with one DM Ampadu to cover our wing-backs Bogle/Firpo defensive frailties.

That sounds like a good idea 64.

Something needs to be done about the defence, because it's been shaky for quite a long time now.

[SG90]

Rodon was poor in the last few games of last season as well - hence us leaking lots of goals in the last 10 games, Isn't it time that he was benched and someone like Wober brought in ?

At the time people were putting Rodon's loss of form down to a hangover from the internationals, however it could be that he has now lost confidence. I would give Wober a chance.

Something that is overlooked. No Cresswell now either to play on the right side. The likes of Meslier and Rodon being guaranteed to start creates complacency.

[DDB220]

I would play three at the back, Rodon, Wober & Struijk with one DM Ampadu to cover our wing-backs Bogle/Firpo defensive frailties.

With the set up Farke employs the defensive capabilities of Firpo and Bogle are not really paramount. Although teams can exploit this with a quick transitional counter. For our set up it is important we do not lose the ball when we are in transition. Because those weaknesses are exploited. This is why our build up play is possession based, if we give the ball away cheaply before we have manoeuvred our players into the ideal positions we leave gaps to exploit and the two wing backs can become isolated with a one on one situation.

This tends to happen if we take more risks, which is what happens when you are chasing the game. Farke will not have expected that initial cheap and calamitous equaliser. It is those cheap goals which we need to minimise, they cost us last season on a number of occasions.

[1964white]

With the set up Farke employs the defensive capabilities of Firpo and Bogle are not really paramount. Although teams can exploit this with a quick transitional counter. For our set up it is important we do not lose the ball when we are in transition. Because those weaknesses are exploited. This is why our build up play is possession based, if we give the ball away cheaply before we have manoeuvred our players into the ideal positions we leave gaps to exploit and the two wing backs can become isolated with a one on one situation.

This tends to happen if we take more risks, which is what happens when you are chasing the game. Farke will not have expected that initial cheap and calamitous equaliser. It is those cheap goals which we need to minimise, they cost us last season on a number of occasions.

Indeed DDB

[1964white]

That sounds like a good idea 64.

Something needs to be done about the defence, because it's been shaky for quite a long time now.

19 goals conceded in our last 12 games.

Prior to those final dozen matches

26 goals conceded in 38 games.

Massive difference

[SG90]

Instead of blaming Aaronson, blame:
Gnonto and Joseph for missing chances
Meslier for not making a save
Bogle conceding a daft penalty
Rodon gifting a goal

[SG90]

19 goals conceded in our last 12 games.

Prior to those final dozen matches

26 goals conceded in 38 games.

Massive difference

Can't blame fatigue or internationals anymore

[1964white]

Can't blame fatigue or internationals anymore

I can only describe our game as chaotic, yesterday.

[Jammy 07]

Personally I'm still too disappointed about yesterdays result to post any meaningful thoughts about the performance. The game was thoroughly enjoyable though apart from the final outcome.

What a shame Aaronson couldn't snatch victory at the death as it would have set an absolutely brilliant tone for the season.

[1964white]

Personally I'm still too disappointed about yesterdays result to post any meaningful thoughts about the performance. The game was thoroughly enjoyable though apart from the final outcome.

What a shame Aaronson couldn't snatch victory at the death as it would have set an absolutely brilliant tone for the season.

Great game for the neutrals, poor from a Leeds fans' perspective.

[FeelsLikeThunder]

The one thing I can think to say right now is that the amount of people I've seen on social media saying that Farke could be in trouble is ridiculous.

[Kennyb41]

The one thing I can think to say right now is that the amount of people I've seen on social media saying that Farke could be in trouble is ridiculous.

Which social media Thunder, can you point me in the right direction, he probably has multiple accounts everywhere on everyone ?

[Orange Box]

Farke should not be in trouble. I just don't get the anti-Farke narrative. His style of football created 20-odd goal opportunities yesterday, some of them silver lined, so he can't be doing that much wrong. Last time I looked we were in our second season in the Championship, so you've got to accept the level of players we have, and acknowledge that easy chances will be missed at this level. I watched a couple of highlight games from PL pre-seasons against CL sides; sitters were missed at that level too. I know, let's do without managers full stop, and let the armchair coaches run the teams. I just love watching Sunday League football.

[Johnsie123]

I don't think either of the c/b covered themselves in glory I also Meslier was poor not sure if we need to look for another keeper and put Wober in for Roden maybe even give wober a go mid week see how it pans out .We have also got to remember there are a few new player to settle in and we still miss a hatfull of goal opportunity I think they looked disjointed for a lot of the time and again DF make subs 66 min onwards no good if you want to change a game pattern .

[GreennWhite]

Farke should not be in trouble. I just don't get the anti-Farke narrative. His style of football created 20-odd goal opportunities yesterday, some of them silver lined, so he can't be doing that much wrong. Last time I looked we were in our second season in the Championship, so you've got to accept the level of players we have, and acknowledge that easy chances will be missed at this level. I watched a couple of highlight games from PL pre-seasons against CL sides; sitters were missed at that level too. I know, let's do without managers full stop, and let the armchair coaches run the teams. I just love watching Sunday League football.

OB, the anti Farke narritive comes from the usual ones, best ignored as it will never change.

[weasel]

A) It wasn't good enough though was it? Can we agree that the talk of a multi year project was false now? He was actually tasked with promotion? And that he is atleast partially responsible for that. Maybe I don't give him enough credit, but i dont think you are as critical as you could be either and maybe we both have our own CHILDISH tendencies. I think galvanised" is an overstated impact myself, Bielsa galvanised the club, i dont think Farke deserves that level of praise i just dont. Was it ideal and easy what DF walked into? Absolutely not, did he manage it OK mostly? Yeah ok. Was it a disaster? No. You could make the case Blunts have had as difficult a summer as we had last year, lost 10,11 first team players, in the middle of seemingly endless takeover drama with no end in sight (oir takeover drama had atleast ended well before season and a poonts deduction. Will he have galvanised them if they get promoted or jusr done his job under less than ideal circumstances? And tbh no I didn't like him talking about 90 points in the context he did the other day. He could have said "we managed 90 points we feel confident we can better it" he went the opposite way and I don't like talking down expectations from any manager.

B) Farke uses xG the same as any manager does, as a defence. No manager wins and mentions xG, they only ever mention it when they don't get the result, be that Marsch or Bielsa or Farke himself. So whether it's relevant or not (and I have defended xG on here many times as a worthwhile performance analysis) it is always used for the same thing by managers, deflecting. They may have a point, they may not, but they all use it for the same thing. Farke has a point today, he may have had a point last season (I haven't checked but I think Southampton and Leicester were top 2 anyway). But as you yourself know it can be manipulated, if we go behind 1-0 from a really good chance of say 0.6, then the opposition sit back for 60+minutes and we pepper the goal with 20 long range hit and hopes then our xG just on accumulation will be higher than the opposition but in reality we created no proper chances. Context is important as with anything but the reason for bringing it up as with any manager is the same.

C) I don't see how saying X should have done this or that as he did then or at times last season is any different to what Hecky did tbh. He could have said "I felt changing this would have done this this and this and unfortunately it didn't and we will look at why". He didn't need to mention any players making mistakes or whatever. Particularly Aaronson who he knows has a fragile relationship with the fans as it is.

A) Ultimately it wasn't good enough, hence the 80% satisfaction rate. For the majority of the season it was excellent. If Wilder gets Sheff U up he will have done a decent job, however Wilder has already been at the club previously and also has been there last season so he knows what players he had at his disposal, he isn't guessing on whether a Summerville or Rutter can be everyday players. So he has had a big head start on what Farke had.

B) I would say a lot of managers don't mention xg when they win because they have probably outperformed xg. You yourself have made mention previously of Farke's Norwich overperforming xg. Given that they overperformed and we vastle underperformed perhaps getting 90 points with Leeds was actually a better achievement than getting 100 with Norwich. Like I said though, and you seem to agree, it is the context and seeing with your own eyes as well as blindly relying on stats. If we viewed yesterday on stats alone (barring goals actually scored) then nobody would have been surprised if we had won 5-1.

C) I feel the arm around Aaronsen was more important than anything Farke said about Aaronsen. Perhaps he is at times too honest in the post match conferences. I see it as constructive criticism rather than defelction of blame - but can see why someone who is vehemently opposed to Farke would see it as you do.