Rotherham Utd v Leeds Utd Match Thread

[pembswhite]

The last 5/6 games the performances have been consistently poor (except Derby). We scraped through against a really poor Rotherham side yesterday - the performance was poor (improved second half but we can't keep waiting until the second half).

Not saying Bielsa hasn't done a good job, he's just set the bar so high and the way we're playing right now is nowhere near that high standard and it's frustrating because we have a great chance to pull away from the pack but we keep dropping points. The way we're playing is frustrating too because we seem to labour through first halves often with no pace and desire to attack with speed, but slow build up play that defences can just put 10 men behind, then in the second half (sometimes when it's too late) we seem to play how we know we can. Just frustrating because I think we can do better.

Can’t argue with any of that to be fair

[HarryofOz]

True Harry

Even though I believe Marcelo has worked miracles with our limited squad of players he is not infallible as he doesn't always get it right himself, he got done by a rookie manager last week at Stoke, if he had a bit more quality at his disposal maybe we would have coped with their pace & strength although he isn't the first & won't be the last top coach to be out thought by a less inexperienced counterpart. That's football !

Stoke were certainly the better team. I don't know if Bielsa was outsmarted it was just a day that Stoke played really well and we didn't.

Fans - of all teams - often make statements about how rubbish certain players are, not only their own team's players but players from other teams as well. I do it myself, though I do know better, and try not to. The fact is that no rubbish player comes through the system to be a professional footballer.

Obviously not all players are equal and there are some who try at a particular level but aren't good enough to succeed at that level, but they are not rubbish. I am rubbish which is why I am not good enough to earn a living (or wasn't when I was young enough)

So sometimes Leeds will be outplayed by Stoke because the players at Stoke are all professionals who have all the qualities to be a professional footballer. The difference is how often a player or a team can play well enough to win a particular match, The better the player/team the more often they will play better than their opponents and therefore go on to win. But that doesn't mean that the teams near the bottom of the table will never hit the right notes on a particular day and beat a team that is higher in the table.

I think that one issue with fans in relation to their own players is that they see the play nearly every game and the full game. They see the highs and the lows. On the other hand they only see other teams occasionally and more often than not they only see other teams in highlight programs where the pick of the action is shown. Another issue is that fans want to see their own team play well all the time, but that is unrealistic.

[Genghers]

hernandez - no assists or goals in the last 5? Not doubting he was good earlier on in the season...

Faaip make 3 assists, plus the cross for Jansson's knock down for his assist...

We play better when he's on song, but he can't do it all himself. We miss Saiz in that respect because he opened up space for Hernandez to work in. He's still contributed 14 assists and 8 goals in all competitions this season...

[BGwhite]

Dan you're spot on with what you say however I think MB is playing a system set up to the strengths of the players. I said last week that Leeds don't possess anyone who can take the ball forward at speed. It showed itself a couple of times yesterday where we had chances to break but got caught quite quickly by them. Think Saiz filled that role but hasn't been replaced. The current players are slow therefore rely on accurate passing but it slows down our play and gives the opposition time to set themselves. The lad from Swansea (James) is very fast and could be the answer to this slowness problem but that in itself creates another problem...the rest of the team have to keep up with him. He'd be very good for an 'out ball' tho.

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[Genghers]

The last 5/6 games the performances have been consistently poor (except Derby). We scraped through against a really poor Rotherham side yesterday - the performance was poor (improved second half but we can't keep waiting until the second half).

We have struggled recently, partly due to the way teams have set up, partly because of The small squad and partly because of some players underperforming.

Early in the season teams didn't know what we were about and so left the spaces when they attacked. We had some brilliant breakaway goals in the first 10 or so games, but teams are wise to that now and will try to stifle that/play the counter themselves.

We will play better against promotion contenders and those threatened with relegation as those are the teams who need to go out and attack as often a draw isn't sufficient. Games where we go ahead we never look like losing.

To that point I think it is a bad habit to get into when we start slow and is something that needs addressing (I'm sure it's not a conscious decision).

Hopefully we can school Norwich again next week as they'll be desperate for a win to close the gap. After that we need to look at countering Boro's massive defenders... hopefully we'll have a couple more options off the bench by then which will make us less predictable.

[danhirons]

Faaip make 3 assists, plus the cross for Jansson's knock down for his assist...

We play better when he's on song, but he can't do it all himself. We miss Saiz in that respect because he opened up space for Hernandez to work in. He's still contributed 14 assists and 8 goals in all competitions this season...

fair enough the official stats say none - but, hey, official stats sometimes don't really show the whole picture

all i'm saying is perhaps he needs a rest but we probably don't have anyone good enough to replace him for a game sadly

[danhirons]

Dan you're spot on with what you say however I think MB is playing a system set up to the strengths of the players. I said last week that Leeds don't possess anyone who can take the ball forward at speed. It showed itself a couple of times yesterday where we had chances to break but got caught quite quickly by them. Think Saiz filled that role but hasn't been replaced. The current players are slow therefore rely on accurate passing but it slows down our play and gives the opposition time to set themselves. The lad from Swansea (James) is very fast and could be the answer to this slowness problem but that in itself creates another problem...the rest of the team have to keep up with him. He'd be very good for an 'out ball' tho.

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good point, perhaps that guy from swansea would be a great buy, but yeah it's true. frustrates me that harrison and ali (our usual wingers) aren't the rapid wingers who can take players on (like jack clarke a bit), guess it does limit us as to how we should play

[Chilli D]

I only saw parts of the game on the available stream in between doing DIY in my new house but it went how I expected.
Rotherham gave it their all, got in front but gradually we got on top and ground out a win. For me, that's a team set for promotion.
Saturday's game against Norwich will be totally different. They're a bit like us in that playa passing game but they look suspect defensively. By all accounts Sheff Utd were unlucky not to win yesterday. The 2-2 result was perfect for us in more ways than one.
Norwich now know that losing to us would open up a 6 point gap and cost them second place. It will make them more cautious in their approach and with a packed ER against them, I am confident we will put in a performance more akin with Derby than Rotherham.
Saturday could be a defining day in the promotion race.

[paddy parrott]

You may be indeed right there Chilli .
Come Saturday evening all can be put in order regarding top 3 teams.A win for Leeds may for me instill a belief that topping the championship in May can be merited and at the very least taking an automatic place.

[SG90]

Stoke were certainly the better team. I don't know if Bielsa was outsmarted it was just a day that Stoke played really well and we didn't.

Fans - of all teams - often make statements about how rubbish certain players are, not only their own team's players but players from other teams as well. I do it myself, though I do know better, and try not to. The fact is that no rubbish player comes through the system to be a professional footballer.

Obviously not all players are equal and there are some who try at a particular level but aren't good enough to succeed at that level, but they are not rubbish. I am rubbish which is why I am not good enough to earn a living (or wasn't when I was young enough)

So sometimes Leeds will be outplayed by Stoke because the players at Stoke are all professionals who have all the qualities to be a professional footballer. The difference is how often a player or a team can play well enough to win a particular match, The better the player/team the more often they will play better than their opponents and therefore go on to win. But that doesn't mean that the teams near the bottom of the table will never hit the right notes on a particular day and beat a team that is higher in the table.

I think that one issue with fans in relation to their own players is that they see the play nearly every game and the full game. They see the highs and the lows. On the other hand they only see other teams occasionally and more often than not they only see other teams in highlight programs where the pick of the action is shown. Another issue is that fans want to see their own team play well all the time, but that is unrealistic.

The BBC match report for Stoke v Preston said they were nowhere near the level they were against Leeds. Just another team having a cup final performance against us and can't back it up next time out.

[The Subhuman]

We're top of the league so have the biggest target on our backs right now
We're LUFC and always have a target on our backs because of it
We're the biggest team in the division and that paints a target
We take the most away fans and that raises the stakes
Derbygate will have teams raise their games
Yesterday was a Yorkshire derby away and a sixth level of game raising..

No other team has our level of pressure and add in a massive amount from our own fans then it's almost mission impossible for us to be promoted.

[White Riot]

We're capable as we've shown many times this season WR as long as we don't waste the first 45 minutes as better teams would punish us if we played like we did in the first-half today

I agree. The notable recent game where we came out flying was Derby, and it rocked them back on their heels. Being so flat and slow in the first half gives the likes of Rotherham, Brum, etc, the time to get everyone behind the ball and cope with whatever then ensues. It frustrates me that when are able to get the opposition to press us in our third we then just carry on playing it horizontally or backwards, instead of breaking quickly and taking advantage of them having 2/3 or more players in our half.

[danhirons]

We have struggled recently, partly due to the way teams have set up, partly because of The small squad and partly because of some players underperforming.

Early in the season teams didn't know what we were about and so left the spaces when they attacked. We had some brilliant breakaway goals in the first 10 or so games, but teams are wise to that now and will try to stifle that/play the counter themselves.

We will play better against promotion contenders and those threatened with relegation as those are the teams who need to go out and attack as often a draw isn't sufficient. Games where we go ahead we never look like losing.

To that point I think it is a bad habit to get into when we start slow and is something that needs addressing (I'm sure it's not a conscious decision).

Hopefully we can school Norwich again next week as they'll be desperate for a win to close the gap. After that we need to look at countering Boro's massive defenders... hopefully we'll have a couple more options off the bench by then which will make us less predictable.

Yeah fair enough and I agree and hopefully the game against Norwich will be much better suited for us since they will come and attack us hopefully, leaving spaces at the back that we can exploit. Getting a couple of players in even if just to give us options from the bench is a must too for me

[White Riot]

Yeah fair enough and I agree and hopefully the game against Norwich will be much better suited for us since they will come and attack us hopefully, leaving spaces at the back that we can exploit. Getting a couple of players in even if just to give us options from the bench is a must too for me

Hopefully we can also have a decent referee for the Norwich match.
From the players we brought in during the summer:
Baker - flopped
Bamford - looked okay in his very limited showings, but has been constantly injured
Blackman - not given chances and then injured
Brown - in previous seasons he looked good, but we've never seen him yet
Douglas - decent, but not the player he was for Wolves last year (admittedly he was playing with a better team/players)
Harrison - so far not brilliant, but has showed some potential lately
We have been constantly hampered by injuries to first team players, without this and a fit and firing Brown/Bamford, I do believe that we would already have built up a decent lead at the top, maybe evn ten points above Norwich.
Its key that we get these players back soon and hopefully avoid these continual long term injuries.
If we can slip in another quality siging, or two, before deadline day it will give us impetus and competition for first team places.
Roberts has shown good potential for us.

[1964white]

We're top of the league so have the biggest target on our backs right now
We're LUFC and always have a target on our backs because of it
We're the biggest team in the division and that paints a target
We take the most away fans and that raises the stakes
Derbygate will have teams raise their games
Yesterday was a Yorkshire derby away and a sixth level of game raising..

No other team has our level of pressure and add in a massive amount from our own fans then it's almost mission impossible for us to be promoted.

Still no excuse for the way we played in the first 45 minutes yesterday as has been the case far too often of late. It was like watching two teams in the relegation zone.

Thankfully we got our act together in the 2nd half

[BGwhite]

This happened a lot under TC and Monk if I remember. First half *hite and 2nd half totally different. Unexplainable but I'll take that every game if we get 3 pts out of it.

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[1964white]

Faaip make 3 assists, plus the cross for Jansson's knock down for his assist...

We play better when he's on song, but he can't do it all himself. We miss Saiz in that respect because he opened up space for Hernandez to work in. He's still contributed 14 assists and 8 goals in all competitions this season...

We should have replaced Saiz to help the aging Hernandez, same with Roofe having to run himself ragged because of no options. I feel sorry for both of them as they have little time to recover from knocks & rarely get a rest. Meanwhile we are relying on crocks returning who have hardly played a game all season

Pablo will definitely win LUFC's Player of the Season award

Says it all for me

[1964white]

This happened a lot under TC and Monk if I remember. First half *hite and 2nd half totally different. Unexplainable but I'll take that every game if we get 3 pts out of it.

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Not good for the old ticker stood on the terraces in freezing temperatures enduring sh*te football when you know we are capable of much better

[The Subhuman]

Pontus wins my POTS comfortably, even if I've been critical of him

[The Subhuman]

fair enough the official stats say none - but, hey, official stats sometimes don't really show the whole picture

all i'm saying is perhaps he needs a rest but we probably don't have anyone good enough to replace him for a game sadly

7 assists and a goal plus a key contribution in the last 9 games he's played ..


Clarke - Hernandez (Sheff Utd)

Hernandez - Roofe (QPR)
Klich - Roofe (QPR)

Hernandez - Bamford (Bolton)

Hernandez - Clarke (Aston Villa)
Hernandez - Jansson (Aston Villa)
Alioski - Roofe (Aston Villa)

Harrison - OG (Blackburn)
No Assist - Roofe (Blackburn)
Hernandez - Roofe (Blackburn)

Klich - Clarke (Notts Forest)
Hernandez/Jansson - Alioski (Notts Forest)

Baker - Halme (QPR cup)

Clarke - Roofe (Derby)
Clarke/Alioski - Harrison

Hernandez - Alioski (Stoke)

Hernandez - Klich (Rotherham)
Harrison - Klich (Rotherham