Millwall v Leeds Utd Match Thread

[rab_rant]

Should have had more goals if Roberts had been on song.

[rab_rant]

Bielsa on substitutions, and the dugout confrontation.

[rab_rant]

Player ratings... Discuss!!!

[rab_rant]

Saiz Harris Bielsa and the dug out altercation... Millwall tweeting for sanctions against Samu.

[rab_rant]

I guess the guy means incite rather than entice... that is Millwall for you.
Dyslexics of the world untie.

[1964white]

Ecstacy when we equalised photo courtesy of Heidi a top fan who has been watching Leeds as long as I have & you'd see her at every Leeds game

[1964white]

Nail biting stuff as all seemed lost until the last minute deserved equaliser from Harrison although we nearly blew it as Millwall could have scored three times in added on time. Great result when you consider we had a scratch team on the park at the end of the game, no striker, no Roofe, Hernandez, Berardi, Phillips, Klich five of our best players this season

Positives

We came back from what looked like a loss at MILLWALL with a scratch team.
We'd have lost that game in previous seasons.
We played the football with 63% of possession.
We equalised with a scratch team & no striker.
We deserved our equaliser.
Lovely goal from Harrison
Pontus & Cooper were giants at the back
Saiz was sublime at times.
Millwall bombarded us with corners & long throws but we coped very well until their goal.
We showed a gritty side to our game.
We are still top of the league with two home games to come at ER v two of the bottom four teams.
We are the only unbeaten team in the championship.

Negatives

We really missed Hernandez & Roofe.
No recognised championship striker
Passing was poor (apart from Saiz), far too many errors.
We didn't flow as we have done previously.
We looked poorer at the back when Phillips was subbed.
We played into Wall's hands giving them too many throw-ins in vital areas.

6 - Peacock-Farrell
8 - Jannson (joint MOTM)
7 - Phillips
8 - Cooper
7 - Ayling
6 - Douglas
7 - Harrison
6 - Klich
8 - Saiz (joint MOTM)
3 - Alioski
5 - Roberts
Subs
5 - Baker
5 - Dallas
5 - Forshaw

[1964white]

Pleased with the result.

Still feel the subs were strange.

Baker for Klich especially

I see your hero ducked the challenge yesterday

Alioski contributed nothing when the big girls blouse should have stood up to the plate especially with Pablo & Roofe missing.

It was like playing with ten men!

[The Subhuman]

You missed the lovely ball from Ali to set up Roberts with a gilt edged chance then?

I'll stand behind what I said earlier. Pontus way too slow and needs three touches when on the ball, lots of opportunities died with him, Cooper far better in MB's system and I think Pontus is back to the bench once Beradi is fit. Good defender, esp. in the air but atm gives us nothing playing out of defence. Which is key in this system. Agree with Oscar, PJ error for their goal too. Hopefully he picks the system up soon but we now know why he didn't start the season.

Phillips still sitting too deep for a DMF for me, I don't think he supposed to be playing CB . Lost possession more than I'd like and the passing was off. From what I actually saw.

If Phillips is playing back 3 then why on earth were our full backs not getting forward more ? Was that a 5-4-1 formation?

Roberts' movement was poor, seems to prefer to play off the shoulder of the last defender and did that well. Really poor finishing though, I counted 5 half to good chances.

Harrison seems a little one dimensional to me, actually looked a little better through the middle. Still on US pace one would think and if we conceded that goal from a slightly mis hit shot I'd not be happy as a Leeds fan. Neither goal was clean though, we both needed a large chunk of luck for m two mis-hit shots.

First goal this season with no assist btw. Can't be bad.

Saiz was excellent

[1964white]

No, no, no Douglas was at fault not picking up the man at the back post.

Without Jansson or Cooper yesterday we'd have lost that game as it was all about aerial combat with Pontus & Coops making 30 clearances. Morison & some of their big lads would have had a field day v Berardi. The main problem was we were without Roofe & Hernandez so only Klich came looking for the ball. We were worse defensively with Phillips off the pitch.

Only Saiz stood up to test magnificently going forward

[1964white]

defe Agree with Oscar, PJ error for their goal too. Hopefully he picks the system up soon but we now know why he didn't start the season.

Phillips still sitting too deep for a DMF for me, I don't think he supposed to be playing CB . Lost possession more than I'd like and the passing was off. From what I actually saw.

Phillips has played as a third CB all season & performed magnificently apart from one blip at Swansea

I didn't know Oscar was at the game!

[The Subhuman]

Oscar's rankings are posted above on video. He basically nailed it

[The Subhuman]

No, no, no Douglas was at fault not picking up the man at the back post.

Without Jansson or Cooper yesterday we'd have lost that game as it was all about aerial combat with Pontus & Coops making 30 clearances. Morison & some of their big lads would have had a field day v Berardi. The main problem was we were without Roofe & Hernandez so only Klich came looking for the ball. We were worse defensively with Phillips off the pitch.

Only Saiz stood up to test magnificently going forward

Ball should never have got to the far post..

[danhirons]

When we're on the ball Phillips drops in as a bit of a centre back, it's the bielsa way and pushes the other two centre backs out wider and the full backs push forward.

Alioski was truly awful yesterday, not sure if he needs a rest or what.

Tyler Roberts looks far from acentre forward. Need Roofe back asap.

Saiz gives the ball away too much for me but that aside had an amazing game, drives us forward so much.

Great finish from Harrison for the goal.

Decent point, we didn't deserve to win the game. Were lucky to get a point tbh.

Whoever lost their main at the back post for the first goal is at fault imo, pontus and Cooper can't be expected to win every single header into the box. Eventually there's going to be a flick on.

[Chilli D]

To be honest, both Pontus and Douglas should have done better. Pontus got the wrong side and underneath the flick on and Douglas was caught on his heels when it was flicked on.
Agreed at full strength we probably would have won but all things considered it's a good point.
Roberts was disappointing but he's short of match sharpness and at least he was getting into positions to have scoring chances even though he fluffed his lines. It will be interesting to see if he starts against Preston or if Harrison gets the nod.
We move on still top and still unbeaten after an extremely tough seven games and two home games to come.
MOT
Chilli

[whiteswan]

Ecstacy when we equalised photo courtesy of Heidi a top fan who has been watching Leeds as long as I have & you'd see her at every Leeds game


Screenshot 2018-09-16 at 08.56.46.png

Is that you 64?

[Cjay]

I see your hero ducked the challenge yesterday

Alioski contributed nothing when the big girls blouse should have stood up to the plate especially with Pablo & Roofe missing.

It was like playing with ten men!

Yet had Roberts scored we would be talking about what a great pass that was from Ali, fine margins.

He wasn't great yesterday and id be quite happy to see Clarke start vs Preston.

Mentioned it last season i do wonder if Ali plays to much, with international football he has already played a lot more minutes then any of his teammates.

[Genghers]

Millwall played their socks off (as they tend to when we go there) and were it not for an incredible reaction save vs. Ayling, we could have won that.

Thought that Roberts did well considering it was his first league start tbh. Bielsa said post match that he doesn't judge strikers solely on goals, and Roberts created himself 2 or 3 good chances with his movement. Roofe would likely have finished one of those and he did scuff one badly, but no striker has a 1:1 shot to goal ratio.

Saiz has really pulled his socks up this season and was really our only creative outlet. Some of his runs from midfield were brilliant. Still needs to release the ball earlier at times, but we need him on that kind of form more consistently, especially when we're back at full strength.

Think Pontus showed why he's not getting picked over Bera. Did the defensive side well, but he's just not as confident playing out from the back. Hopefully having a run of competitive games will help that though. He's certainly not a step down from Bera really, just fills a different role.

Thought Baker was pretty poor other than a few nice bits of skill. Him and Blackman haven't exactly proven why we loaned them yet... Harrison seems to be improving each game which is good to see. We did say that it would probably take a little while for him to get up to speed with the Championship.

Once we took off Roberts we definitely did lack a focal point. We were almost playing a 'false 9' in Harrison - Bielsa clearly didn't fancy Edmonson in that atmosphere?

All in all its a good point in a game that we might have lost in previous seasons. We've shown more grit already this year than I've seen since Larry was here I think and that's a big achievement for Bielsa considering the way the second half of last year went.

[1964white]

Is that you 64?

No not this time Swannie

[1964white]

Alioski was truly awful yesterday, not sure if he needs a rest or what

Everyone I know at the game thought he had a shocker!

Whoever lost their main at the back post for the first goal is at fault imo, pontus and Cooper can't be expected to win every single header into the box. Eventually there's going to be a flick on.

My mates were saying the same at sometime they would win a header. Douglas was the guilty one who totally lost his man at the back post, he wasn't at his best yesterday.