It's become a concerning trait of this Leeds team that they have to concede a goal before they display any sort of urgency or attempt to play at any sort of tempo. Strangely it's not just the players to blame for this, it's the whole setup! Early in the first half a wayward effort on the Brentford goal landed on the segregation netting between the two sets of supporters in The South Stand... at least 50 seconds elapsed before the game was ready to resume as everybody in the stadium waited for a steward to hurdle down a few rows of seats to retrieve the seemingly solitary football inside Elland Road! This has been the story all season, how can you expect the team to play at a tempo and put defensive teams under pressure with constant reprieves whilst waiting for the ball to return??
As detrimental to a winning display that this is, it's far from the only problem we have currently; lack of confidence, nervous fans and the fact that the ball just isn't dropping for us at the minute, as pathetic as that sounds. Its all combining to make a once straight forward season into a very nervous one (Norwich City fans may argue that we've had enough luck to last 2 seasons this term).
By the time Lubomir Michalik headed against the foot of a post Leeds had already spurned more chances in 90 minutes than they've created in the previous 3 home games, Robert Snodgrass the biggest culprit as he failed to convert a magnificent opportunity after being released through on goal with only the 'keeper to beat. Leeds now travel to Tranmere for our long awaited 'game in hand' in the hope of strengthening our ever-weakening position in the top two. Hopefully we set about them from the off and not wait until we're a goal down and have it all to do.
Its all getting a little nervy but I'll take solace in the fact that bar Norwich, every team in this league would swap places with us, no questions asked and we're more than good enough to see the job through. We certainly make it hard for ourselves though!
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Good blog, well said, we need early goals to get us on the front foot, because the longer we go in games devoid of such luxury the more confident the opposition team become, and invariably nick a goal to put the pressure back on us. Before Christmas we would have steamrollered Brentford, but not now, and i'm very nervous about Tuesday's game with Tranmere.
ReplyDeleteone of the problems is up front it was clear we needed a striker in the window we had a good oppertunity in lee barnard to not only get a striker to replace beckford but also get us promition yet we pay a reported 200000k for someone to warm the bench to be honest graysons were baffling especially the substitutions i have had my doubts over grayson at blackpool he wa sunde rno real pressure after over achieving but i have my doubts whether th epressure of managing a club with huge expectations is to much to handle also i have a sneaking suspicion he is just a bates yes man bates would probally delighted if we just got to the playoffs with a large cash if we got to wembley
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