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Why couldn't we pass?


Judda

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The way Leeds pressed was phenomenal. I'm not sure I've ever seen a team come here and press so well. It was like they had far more than 11 players on the pitch. We were not afforded any space at all. Their players performed like they were on ecstasy the whole game. To press us for 100 minutes was impressive. 

They came here and intimated us and did a job on us, we were like rabbits in headlights.

However they lose a lot of credit from me because of how dirty they was. Man City and Liverpool are some of the best pressers in the world, but they do it in a clean way. Leeds were disgusting with how they played and the ref was too weak and allowed it to happen. Our players took a right battering and I'm sure we will have a few walking wounded now that's gonna need patching up for Tuesday night.

Apart from the pressing game Leeds were not particularly threatening imo. Apart from the goal which was a shambles our defence were great. 

 

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Our opponents were ‘at it’ for the whole game and we weren’t. 

We were continually hurried when in possession and rather than staying composed we panicked. 

We were poor all round. 

We lost almost every 2nd ball. We lost possession easily. We lost the mental battle as well as the physical battle. Bad day for everyone. 

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I thought today raised more questions than answers to be honest. Let’s face it it’s been a pleasant surprise the last few months, we haven’t just been winning but playing nice football as well and after how we began the season I for one didn’t see that coming. 

 

Lots of people mentioned how tired players looked or is it we’re pretty one dimensional and teams know how to play us now. Brownhill, Da Silva Paterson Pack ODowda all looked pretty “tired”. Birmingham and Leeds had pretty similar approaches that showed our limitations. And maybe that’s true for LJ as well, and I’m not a basher, I really like the style he tries to promote it’s just that there’s no fall back that seems convincing when he needs one. 

 

I didn’t see the Preston game but Semenyo looked plain average and out of his depth. Was a strange game to play him to be honest. 

 

Roll on Tuesday. What a mad league the championship is where you can be pretty average and still be in the mix. I kind of like that but pretty terrifying if we got promoted.

 

And finally I know it’s easy to hate Leeds but I thought their fans were brilliant today and let’s be honest our fans pretty lame.

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They did press us well and did their jobs as per their game plan. Unfortunately we did not look good under pressure with sloppy, careless passing and cheaply losing possession. Not being able to play/perform under pressure has to be a worry going forward.

 

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3 hours ago, Up The City! said:

The way Leeds pressed was phenomenal. I'm not sure I've ever seen a team come here and press so well. It was like they had far more than 11 players on the pitch. We were not afforded any space at all. Their players performed like they were on ecstasy the whole game. To press us for 100 minutes was impressive. 

I mentioned this in the build up, they press really well and anyone who saw their WBA home game knew that. I said that Pack would be struggling if he continues to take that extra touch he likes, can't afford to do it against teams like Leeds, and come to that Birmingham was similar. I said after Brum, we needed to pass the ball quicker and give the receiving man more time. 
Again we made things hard for ourselves, but that started with team selection, we have been solid at the beginning of games, and LJ throws Semenyo into a very difficult game. Wright was universally criticised for his Norwich performance and we had a 'real' FB on the bench, very odd IMO.

Another 'bad day at the office' for all concerned.

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6 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I mentioned this in the build up, they press really well and anyone who saw their WBA home game knew that. I said that Pack would be struggling if he continues to take that extra touch he likes, can't afford to do it against teams like Leeds, and come to that Birmingham was similar. I said after Brum, we needed to pass the ball quicker and give the receiving man more time. 
Again we made things hard for ourselves, but that started with team selection, we have been solid at the beginning of games, and LJ throws Semenyo into a very difficult game. Wright was universally criticised for his Norwich performance and we had a 'real' FB on the bench, very odd IMO.

Another 'bad day at the office' for all concerned.

The reality is that we don't have players good enough to pass the ball quickly and consistently under a lot of pressure and tight marking.  We had flashes of good play but that was it. What was most frustrating was that Webster broke their system on a number of occasions, just by running through the middle with the ball, and getting deep into their half, only then to ruin it with a misplaced lay off or pass. At times, our players just didn't even seem on the same wavelength as each other, which allowed Leeds to pick us off.

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7 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

The reality is that we don't have players good enough to pass the ball quickly and consistently under a lot of pressure and tight marking.  We had flashes of good play but that was it. What was most frustrating was that Webster broke their system on a number of occasions, just by running through the middle with the ball, and getting deep into their half, only then to ruin it with a misplaced lay off or pass. At times, our players just didn't even seem on the same wavelength as each other, which allowed Leeds to pick us off.

 

1 minute ago, Judda said:

I noticed that.  Webster's great runs with terribly mislaid passes at the end of them!

Webster does those runs a lot, much of the time the rest off the team stand and watch, rather than moving to a position to take the ball. Actually , our movement is generally poor, we need to give the man in possession more options so we can move it quicker.

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2 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

 

Webster does those runs a lot, much of the time the rest off the team stand and watch, rather than moving to a position to take the ball. Actually , our movement is generally poor, we need to give the man in possession more options so we can move it quicker.

True. But when we were making good runs we always seemed to be passing behind the players run and losing momentum...

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5 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

 

Webster does those runs a lot, much of the time the rest off the team stand and watch, rather than moving to a position to take the ball. Actually , our movement is generally poor, we need to give the man in possession more options so we can move it quicker.

How come Webster, a centre half, can make these great thrusting forward runs yet our midfielders can’t?

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2 minutes ago, harrys said:

How come Webster, a centre half, can make these great thrusting forward runs yet our midfielders can’t?

Because he is a better player than either of our 2 central midfielders. He can play better long passes and make better runs forward. The only thing he lacks is Flint's eye for goal.

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3 hours ago, Up The City! said:

The way Leeds pressed was phenomenal. I'm not sure I've ever seen a team come here and press so well. It was like they had far more than 11 players on the pitch. We were not afforded any space at all. Their players performed like they were on ecstasy the whole game. To press us for 100 minutes was impressive. 

They came here and intimated us and did a job on us, we were like rabbits in headlights.

However they lose a lot of credit from me because of how dirty they was. Man City and Liverpool are some of the best pressers in the world, but they do it in a clean way. Leeds were disgusting with how they played and the ref was too weak and allowed it to happen. Our players took a right battering and I'm sure we will have a few walking wounded now that's gonna need patching up for Tuesday night.

Apart from the pressing game Leeds were not particularly threatening imo. Apart from the goal which was a shambles our defence were great. 

 

100% agree . We just couldn’t breathe at all bar a short spell in the 2nd half . Said to my son that Leeds were however just a quality midfield with little threat at the sharp end . Should they go up , they’ll need to strengthen that attack and any side with a better midfield than them will leave with the points . 

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5 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

Because he is a better player than either of our 2 central midfielders. He can play better long passes and make better runs forward. The only thing he lacks is Flint's eye for goal.

Maybe Webster should play in Pack’s position :)

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13 minutes ago, harrys said:

How come Webster, a centre half, can make these great thrusting forward runs yet our midfielders can’t?

It's the position. Teams will mark and close the space that MF's have to work in, there is usually space for a CB to bring the ball out and Webster does that better than most. Yesterday his final ball was off, but I'm not sure that the rest of the team made it easy for him , not like he had lots of options when he did bring it out.

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31 minutes ago, harrys said:

How come Webster, a centre half, can make these great thrusting forward runs yet our midfielders can’t?

Because its one of his key skills and that is where the space was  to run with the ball on occasions. Leeds filled the space in front made City play flatter thus cutting off space for midfielders.  

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57 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

They did press us well and did their jobs as per their game plan. Unfortunately we did not look good under pressure with sloppy, careless passing and cheaply losing possession. Not being able to play/perform under pressure has to be a worry going forward.

 

Spot on. We actually helped Leeds pressing by frequently playing soft passes which even when accurate meant the receiving player had a Leeds player in his face. Needed much more zip on our passes to create that little bit of space for the receiving players. 

Pack often is poor when hassled (although can run midfield given time & space), Brownhill and Dasilva have been off their best for several games too. Add in, as has been mentioned, that Webster's passing (after several good bursts forward) was woeful and that explains a lot about why we were second best. 

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31 minutes ago, Baldyman said:

100% agree . We just couldn’t breathe at all bar a short spell in the 2nd half . Said to my son that Leeds were however just a quality midfield with little threat at the sharp end . Should they go up , they’ll need to strengthen that attack and any side with a better midfield than them will leave with the points . 

I didn't really every feel threatened that they would score more goals. In that sense they were poor but they did a tactical job on us and we had no plan b.

I was hoping coming 80 mins they would tire and that would give us a chance but they didn't. I'm guessing what worked was they were able to press and would then waste time by feigning injuries etc and that would give them a little recovery time.

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1 minute ago, Judda said:

After 80 mins we barely played any football due to their time wasting etc. Broke any chance of us getting momentum when they tired.

And that is how you defend a 1-0 lead and go home with 3 points.It's game management and that's what we need to be clever at.

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