Leeds Utd v Watford Match Thread

[weasel]

Like i immediately thought, the quite obvious pass is to the No.8 who has made himself available.
They are being trained to keep it on the deck.
I can't see Farke being happy with what turned out to be a risky 'in the air' pass, it ended up proving to be risky, and their goal came from it.
Thanks for going to the effort you have.

The thing is that as a defender you don't always get the time to look up to see where the pass option is. As such you can often simply clear it to where you expect a team mate to be. If you look back to how we were under Bielsa then players knew exactly where to be running etc so that a player receiving a ball would know where to play it without having to look up. As such you move the ball quickly and can get out of tricky situations. But going back to Struyjk and in that position if you don't have a safe pass, or you don't have time to weigh up the options then play the safe pass, you are aiming for an area and this is what I think he is doing. You want to put the ball in the air so that at the very least it is cleared rather than trying to thread a pass along the ground which may be intercepted quite close to you and become really dangerous. So it is half a clearance and half a pass into an area where a teammate is likely to be, it can turn out well but on occasion will turn into neither one nor the other.

As a defender myself if in doubt I would look to simply clear it but I would always look to rake it out diagonally from where I was and ideally knock it over the halfway line and over their defenders to give my wingers the chance to turn it into something dangerous. A good way of turning defence into attack. However if you don't get enough distance on the ball you are simply giving it back to the team. That is for me why I think Struyk's was half a pass and half a clearance but ultimately turned into a difficult ball for us to keep possesion with. If it had been played for James instead of Soloman it might well have been hit harder and into space (as described above) rather than to the man.

[weasel]

No definitely not.
Weasel is far funnier and a great looker too.
I dont mean I fancy him or anything.
I’m digging a hole here.

I appreciate your honesty but why are you digging a hole? How big is the hole you are digging? I have always fancied playing footy golf (where you kick a ball around a acourse and try to get it into a hole like as in golf). If your hole is that big (ooer missus) then count me in and I wil be round to lob my balls into your hole.

[Jaydog]

I appreciate your honesty but why are you digging a hole? How big is the hole you are digging? I have always fancied playing footy golf (where you kick a ball around a acourse and try to get it into a hole like as in golf). If your hole is that big (ooer missus) then count me in and I wil be round to lob my balls into your hole.

Yes I’d give that a go. Actually a great idea.
But do you have a bag of legs instead of clubs.
I think this a four leg from here (good pun).
Careful now as CW will get confused. “Now which one’s the comedian”.

[The Subhuman]

The thing is that as a defender you don't always get the time to look up to see where the pass option is. As such you can often simply clear it to where you expect a team mate to be. If you look back to how we were under Bielsa then players knew exactly where to be running etc so that a player receiving a ball would know where to play it without having to look up. As such you move the ball quickly and can get out of tricky situations. But going back to Struyjk and in that position if you don't have a safe pass, or you don't have time to weigh up the options then play the safe pass, you are aiming for an area and this is what I think he is doing. You want to put the ball in the air so that at the very least it is cleared rather than trying to thread a pass along the ground which may be intercepted quite close to you and become really dangerous. So it is half a clearance and half a pass into an area where a teammate is likely to be, it can turn out well but on occasion will turn into neither one nor the other.

As a defender myself if in doubt I would look to simply clear it but I would always look to rake it out diagonally from where I was and ideally knock it over the halfway line and over their defenders to give my wingers the chance to turn it into something dangerous. A good way of turning defence into attack. However if you don't get enough distance on the ball you are simply giving it back to the team. That is for me why I think Struyk's was half a pass and half a clearance but ultimately turned into a difficult ball for us to keep possesion with. If it had been played for James instead of Soloman it might well have been hit harder and into space (as described above) rather than to the man.

Struijk looks up, sees his target, plays a good ball for a flick on header that could launch an attack.. Which for me is excellent football as I'm attack minded

[Morpheus]

Make your point about the game.....but please stop slagging off the fans.

I’m not a delusional apologist for poor expectations of a one club city, which should be doing far better than it has for the past 21 years.

If you take this personally on everyones behalf. I can only imagine you are of the new League 1 / Championship generation.

You need total brutal honesty and a keen eye for early shortcomings to get our this league.

We can’t afford to let 2-0 leads become life and death affairs with matches going on nearly 100 minutes.

If you don’t like this outlook. Please ignore all my future comments

[andrewjohnsmith]

I’m not a delusional apologist for poor expectations of a one club city, which should be doing far better than it has for the past 21 years.

If you take this personally on everyones behalf. I can only imagine you are of the new League 1 / Championship generation.

You need total brutal honesty and a keen eye for early shortcomings to get our this league.

We can’t afford to let 2-0 leads become life and death affairs with matches going on nearly 100 minutes.

If you don’t like this outlook. Please ignore all my future comments

Not sure of the context of the discussion. And can't be bothered either. But I do agree that it would be nice to finish a team off with 3 or 4 every once in a while. Not every week. But maybe once a month? Our domination of games does justify that at times. It would be nice to start benching a couple of key players around the 60 minute mark. And start finding some opportunities for the likes of Debayo and Crew (or even Joffy) to get some useful game time and experience.

[JoeDenver]

Not sure of the context of the discussion. And can't be bothered either. But I do agree that it would be nice to finish a team off with 3 or 4 every once in a while. Not every week. But maybe once a month? Our domination of games does justify that at times. It would be nice to start benching a couple of key players around the 60 minute mark. And start finding some opportunities for the likes of Debayo and Crew (or even Joffy) to get some useful game time and experience.

[1964white]

Not sure of the context of the discussion. And can't be bothered either. But I do agree that it would be nice to finish a team off with 3 or 4 every once in a while. Not every week. But maybe once a month? Our domination of games does justify that at times. It would be nice to start benching a couple of key players around the 60 minute mark. And start finding some opportunities for the likes of Debayo and Crew (or even Joffy) to get some useful game time and experience.

Hence, why I'm wary of predicting of us scoring more than two goals on the Leeds Correct Score predictions threads.

[CypriotWhite]

The thing is that as a defender you don't always get the time to look up to see where the pass option is. As such you can often simply clear it to where you expect a team mate to be. If you look back to how we were under Bielsa then players knew exactly where to be running etc so that a player receiving a ball would know where to play it without having to look up. As such you move the ball quickly and can get out of tricky situations. But going back to Struyjk and in that position if you don't have a safe pass, or you don't have time to weigh up the options then play the safe pass, you are aiming for an area and this is what I think he is doing. You want to put the ball in the air so that at the very least it is cleared rather than trying to thread a pass along the ground which may be intercepted quite close to you and become really dangerous. So it is half a clearance and half a pass into an area where a teammate is likely to be, it can turn out well but on occasion will turn into neither one nor the other.

As a defender myself if in doubt I would look to simply clear it but I would always look to rake it out diagonally from where I was and ideally knock it over the halfway line and over their defenders to give my wingers the chance to turn it into something dangerous. A good way of turning defence into attack. However if you don't get enough distance on the ball you are simply giving it back to the team. That is for me why I think Struyk's was half a pass and half a clearance but ultimately turned into a difficult ball for us to keep possesion with. If it had been played for James instead of Soloman it might well have been hit harder and into space (as described above) rather than to the man.

You just reminded me of our PE teacher at school when we were training and i didn't have time to look up, was being harried by opponent closing in, and i hoofed the ball as hard as i could down the touchline in the direction of our right winger.
"cracking searching ball lad, stop the game for a moment"
He then proceeded to lecture us all on the benefit sometimes of a 'searching ball' where you haven't the time but launch it clear to where you feel one of your players may be.

I'd like to see it again in real time, my immediate thought was Pascal made the wrong decision, 'hoofing it' was probably the wrong term from myself, the photo 64 added shows Rothwell available.
I still stand by my immediate thought of "was there any need for that?" when watching it live.
If someone has watched it replayed 10 times like they say, they're more likely to be right than my once, well, they should be.

[CypriotWhite]

Yes I’d give that a go. Actually a great idea.
But do you have a bag of legs instead of clubs.
I think this a four leg from here (good pun).
Careful now as CW will get confused. “Now which one’s the comedian”.

I won't.

[1964white]

You just reminded me of our PE teacher at school when we were training and i didn't have time to look up, was being harried by opponent closing in, and i hoofed the ball as hard as i could down the touchline in the direction of our right winger.
"cracking searching ball lad, stop the game for a moment"
He then proceeded to lecture us all on the benefit sometimes of a 'searching ball' where you haven't the time but launch it clear to where you feel one of your players may be.

I'd like to see it again in real time, my immediate thought was Pascal made the wrong decision, 'hoofing it' was probably the wrong term from myself, the photo 64 added shows Rothwell available.
I still stand by my immediate thought of "was there any need for that?" when watching it live.
If someone has watched it replayed 10 times like they say, they're more likely to be right than my once, well, they should be.

Struijk had other options with five players down the left flank :

A short pass to Rothwell, which would be our usual option, or play it longer beyond Soloman to Firpo, Aaronson or Piroe.

Not easy to choose which option in the spur of the moment.

[CypriotWhite]

Struijk had other options with five players down the left flank :

A short pass to Rothwell, which would be our usual option, or play it longer beyond Soloman to Firpo, Aaronson or Piroe.

Not easy to choose which option in the spur of the moment.

I'm still waiting to see it again.
But if that was the case that Firpo was more advanced than Solomon, then it would make sense he was going over the top to him and probably under hit it, also brings in he was caught in two minds.

[The Subhuman]

Struijk had other options with five players down the left flank :

A short pass to Rothwell, which would be our usual option, or play it longer beyond Soloman to Firpo, Aaronson or Piroe.

Not easy to choose which option in the spur of the moment.

But the correct one imo

[Madron]

Getting vertigo from these cameras