Ok, had time to digest last night now.
Firstly the team selection. Given that Glassy Phillips was injured again I don't criticise the team selection in midfield. We could've played Field or Johansen but Livermore, Barry and Harper was no worse a combination than any other.
Up front without Harvey Barnes we have no creativity or on the ball quality. In this case the threat we have to offer is pace we have that in Murphy and Montero. One of them had to start because Rodriguez and Gayle are not going to offer any creativity and are not going to put defenders on the back foot in the 4-3-3 system.
Now the shocking selection, Tosin Adarabioyo at left back. No Darren, no, no, no. We have a specialist left back available in Conor Townsend. Townsend may not be the best but he's a natural left back, he will get up and down the pitch, has energy and is a far better option than playing Adarabioyo there. Tosin filling in at right back at times is just about acceptable but a tleft back, no. Utterly stupid decision and I know "stupid" is a strong word but yes it was stupid.
When we played Leeds at home and Norwich at home we started fast and were tenacious both times that's what we needed last night we got absolutely the opposite.
The first goal 16 seconds. Ridiculous, from our kick off. We spend all game fannying about at the back trying to keep the ball but from a kick off we don't try and keep possession. Their defender wins the header and the ball ends up coming across to Hernandez. Out of position or not, Adarabioyo's defending is abysmal. He actually does nothing, other than shift his weight slightly onto his left which was just barmy as the goal was on the right side of him. Other than that, nothing, no attempt to block the shot, no moving towards Hernandez, no tackle, absolutely zero defending. A world class 'keeper may have saved it but no real blame on Johnstone.
After that Leeds ran us off the park. The second goal was inevitable. Dawson seems to have received some blame for the goal but it's a bit harsh, they play round him, it's the full backs to blame. Tosin and Holgate are not in line, they both play Bamford onside. Tosin has a perfect view of his fellow defenders inside him he has to move out. Holgate just walks back literally. Awful.
It's not just the goals the whole performance was awful. Slow, no aggression, no tempo, passing and reception of the ball, awful. The telling stat for me was at half time Leeds had made something like 23 tackles, we had made something like 7, (can't remember exact figures). That disparity says it all for me. Our mindset was all about trying to pass the ball, we forgot the tempo and the intensity that we showed in our home fixture against them.
At half time I'm thinking Darren is going to change things here, either Murphy or Montero are going to come on and we're going to change shape, surely? No, nothing. The only real change we made was our wide forwards played much narrower. We actually started the second half much better, more intensity, more aggression. Robson-Kanu misses a great chance from a header. If that goes in the momentum may have shifted but it didn't and we concede another shocking goal. The way Roberts goes past Livermore is embarrassing, Holgate then dangles a leg in a terrible attempt at a tackle and the deflection takes the ball into the goal. After that, Leeds ran all over us again. The forth goal was really well worked gotta give Leeds credit.
That Leeds performance last night was the type of performance I've been waiting to see from us all season. We produced that level of performance first twenty five minutes at home to Leeds and Norwich and second half at Sheffield United, other than that, not at all and certainly not over a full ninety minutes.
Leeds are the best team we've played this season and Norwich deserve to be top two with them. I said at the beginning of the season I thought we'd make the play off's and that looks likely now although unpredictable as this league is the top two still isn't impossible. Can't see us finishing top two though, we simply aren't good enough. Those people worrying about us losing our "stars" next season I'd ask just who they think our "Premier League quality" players are. I don't see many of them.