Leeds United v Wolves - MATCH THREAD - Cooper pulls up during warm up!

[1964white]

This is better

Aye we only woke up in the 2nd half once we went one down

[1964white]

Solid team performance, unlucky goal to concede but downside would be a significant lack of creativity up top. Cross after cross went in nowhere near anyone from our team and for all our possession in and around the box created very little. Draw would have been a fair result though. Some bizarre ref/var calls too

Ref was awful Dan

[Carrick Dave]

That in itself is a defeatist attitude... 1-0 loss (defelcted goal) against an established Prem team ...lots of positive's

We were defeated, end of. We were second best second half, against worthy opponents who get better in the second half. Lessons to learn, none more than the need to take our chances when in the ascendancy.

I was pleased with our game till half time, and love to watch our excellent football going forward , but when you lose you lose.

This is the Prem, and what matters now is the lessons we learn from our defeat tonight.

[WhiteRose]

I think that's the way to go - maybe drop Harrison as well.

I think it's time to realise that Bamford and Harrison are probably never going to be quite the players that people hope they will be. They've both had enough chances to prove that over the last 2 seasons. Trouble is now and again they both have a good game and then most people forget about all the previous frustrations with their performances. Both players often flatter only to deceive. It's time to ring in the changes - there are now options available.

Yeah agree regards Harrison, he can be good but far too often his deliveries are poor to say the least him and costa will be nervously looking over their shoulders with poveda and raphinha ready to pounce, end of day Harrison isnt our player so maybe best to think about starting the man we spent 21 million on.

[whiteswan]

The writing was on the wall Swannie when so many passes were going astray. Wolves heads thought it won't need much to win this as we did our utmost to chuck the game away

Also, I think we were second to a lot of ping pong balls.....usually we are on top and get to them first, but I thought we were a bit slow and lacklustre tonight

[Smudge3920]

We were defeated, end of. We were second best second half, against worthy opponents who get better in the second half. Lessons to learn, none more than the need to take our chances when in the ascendancy.

I was pleased with our game till half time, and love to watch our excellent football going forward , but when you lose you lose.

This is the Prem, and what matters now is the lessons we learn from our defeat tonight.

Keep talking in a defeatist attitude and will be relegatedway before the season ends... of course lessons to be learned, even when you win always lesson's to be learned..maybe you set your sights to high for a first term back in the prem... No such thing as an easy game anymore, ask Liddypool the champs.

[Cjay]

Yeah agree regards Harrison, he can be good but far too often his deliveries are poor to say the least him and costa will be nervously looking over their shoulders with poveda and raphinha ready to pounce, end of day Harrison isnt our player so maybe best to think about starting the man we spent 21 million on.

Think Raphinha is an interesting one.

According to Phil Orta and Bielsa were tracking him independently of eachother but it was thought he wasnt attainable so he wasnt on our winger list as an option for MB.

The fact MB rates him enough to track him off his own back with his own contacts suggests he is a fan.

We didnt spend £21mil on a winger the boss wanted for him to sit on the bench. He will be a 1st 11 player eventually imo.

Where does that leave Harrison?

Poveda clearly is one of MB's core group now.

Where does that leave Costa?

Will MB stick with his original core pair or will Raph and Poveda slowly force there way into his first 11?

Id say they are different.

Costa and Harrison dally a bit to much for me, they look for the overload option whereas Poveda especially is just forwards CHARGEEEEEEEEE.

Raphinha is fast and that imo is what Harrison hasnt got, his touch is great he has a trick or two and is capable of real quality but he lacks the pace traditional wingers have.

Kewell had it, Giggs had it, the ability to slow a fb down and then speed past him, no tricks just kick and run.

Costa lacks the tricks Harrison has but Harrison lacks the blistering speed, you really need both as a winger vs a packed defence.

Poveda and Raphinha seem to have both, just my view.

However, Costa and Harrison do the pther stuff MB likes better than the other pair.

[Smudge3920]

...Jeez reading some of the comments I hope we do not suffer a 7-2 loss like the Champs ...if it gets this bad for a 1-0 game settled by a cruel deflection...

[Overman]

That in itself is a defeatist attitude... 1-0 loss (defelcted goal) against an established Prem team ...lots of positive's

Not really, we failed to score for the entire 90 mins, they did, we lost. Not much positive about that.

[Smudge3920]

Not really, we failed to score for the entire 90 mins, they did, we lost. Not much positive about that.

...see below...

[Cjay]

...Jeez reading some of the comments I hope we do not suffer a 7-2 loss like the Champs ...if it gets this bad for a 1-0 game settled by a cruel deflection...

Tiz just discussion

Personally not disheartened, Wolves are the epitome of solid defensive counter attacking side, we always struggle vs that.

Bit dull.

But they are as good as any side in the league at what they do and yet a lucky deflection decided it.

On another day we have that luck, Hernandez shot deflects in, Ayling shot isnt blocked (it was going to be a close race between the goalie and Bamford) the Poveda shot deflects kindly to Rodders etc.

Fine margins and areas today we weren't good enough at, thats football

[Dundalis]

Think Raphinha is an interesting one.

According to Phil Orta and Bielsa were tracking him independently of eachother but it was thought he wasnt attainable so he wasnt on our winger list as an option for MB.

The fact MB rates him enough to track him off his own back with his own contacts suggests he is a fan.

We didnt spend £21mil on a winger the boss wanted for him to sit on the bench. He will be a 1st 11 player eventually imo.

Where does that leave Harrison?

Poveda clearly is one of MB's core group now.

Where does that leave Costa?

Will MB stick with his original core pair or will Raph and Poveda slowly force there way into his first 11?

Id say they are different.

Costa and Harrison dally a bit to much for me, they look for the overload option whereas Poveda especially is just forwards CHARGEEEEEEEEE.

Raphinha is fast and that imo is what Harrison hasnt got, his touch is great he has a trick or two and is capable of real quality but he lacks the pace traditional wingers have.

Kewell had it, Giggs had it, the ability to slow a fb down and then speed past him, no tricks just kick and run.

Costa lacks the tricks Harrison has but Harrison lacks the blistering speed, you really need both as a winger vs a packed defence.

Poveda and Raphinha seem to have both, just my view.

However, Costa and Harrison do the pther stuff MB likes better than the other pair.

Kewell actually wasn't super quick over distance, what he had was really good burst over his first two or three steps, but he was also probably more technically gifted than any player in this team. Like Giggs, he actually didn't need tricks even though he had some in his bag, instead he really mastered the body swerve that IMO a lot of even the really good wingers today have somewhat lost the art of, in favour of fancy footwork. To me feints using your hips and body for directional changes is much more effective than using advanced footwork (stepovers, nutmegs etc) to beat players in one on ones. Having elite pace mitigates that a lot though. Harrison and Costa are perfectly fine as wingers at Championship level, but the Prem is a completely different beast. Your wingers need the extra pace if they don't have elite one v one moves. Poveda and Raphinha are definitely the future on the wing if Leeds want to be an established PL team. It would be nice if they weren't both left footed, although Raphinha seems to be reasonably two footed.

I do think it might be a good idea to give Harrison a chance to play in the attacking midfield role where having pace is less of a need. I'd like to Bielsa try Costa and Raphinha on the wings with Harrison in the attacking mid role and Rodrigo up front, and if Costa can't be consistent, Poveda eventually replacing him.

[1964white]

Think Raphinha is an interesting one.

According to Phil Orta and Bielsa were tracking him independently of eachother but it was thought he wasnt attainable so he wasnt on our winger list as an option for MB.

The fact MB rates him enough to track him off his own back with his own contacts suggests he is a fan.

We didnt spend £21mil on a winger the boss wanted for him to sit on the bench. He will be a 1st 11 player eventually imo.

Where does that leave Harrison?

Poveda clearly is one of MB's core group now.

Where does that leave Costa?

Will MB stick with his original core pair or will Raph and Poveda slowly force there way into his first 11?

Id say they are different.

Costa and Harrison dally a bit to much for me, they look for the overload option whereas Poveda especially is just forwards CHARGEEEEEEEEE.

Raphinha is fast and that imo is what Harrison hasnt got, his touch is great he has a trick or two and is capable of real quality but he lacks the pace traditional wingers have.

Kewell had it, Giggs had it, the ability to slow a fb down and then speed past him, no tricks just kick and run.

Costa lacks the tricks Harrison has but Harrison lacks the blistering speed, you really need both as a winger vs a packed defence.

Poveda and Raphinha seem to have both, just my view.

However, Costa and Harrison do the pther stuff MB likes better than the other pair.

Jack does my head in

All that dilly-dallying about

Final ball was poor or non-existent last night

Sadly far too inconsistent for the premier league

[White Riot]

A disappointing result.

First half we played well and same as the last two seasons against teams who park the bus we struggled to break Wolves down.

We don't have a number 10, which really hurts our end product. Closest we've got is Pablo, but we knew we weren't getting a full season out of him.

Since Saiz went we have failed to effectively replace him, and same with Chris Wood. Between Bamford and Rodrigo do we have a finisher? I'm not convinced we do.

We're overloaded with wingers: Costa, Pablo, Alioski, Harrison, Raphinha, Poveda, and Dallas and Ayling as wing backs.

But the lack of a genuine 10 will continue to hurt us and that should already have been addressed.

[White Riot]

Tiz just discussion

Personally not disheartened, Wolves are the epitome of solid defensive counter attacking side, we always struggle vs that.

Bit dull.

But they are as good as any side in the league at what they do and yet a lucky deflection decided it.

On another day we have that luck, Hernandez shot deflects in, Ayling shot isnt blocked (it was going to be a close race between the goalie and Bamford) the Poveda shot deflects kindly to Rodders etc.

Fine margins and areas today we weren't good enough at, thats football

Exactly how I feel Cjay. We came up against a decent and well organised side and were a bit unlucky. It could easily have been a 1-0 win for us.

We were a bit crap in the second half, but you have to acknowledge that there are two teams on the pitch and Nuno had probably given them a bollocking.

Biggest issue for me is the lack of creativity and end product, that needs sorted quickly.

[1964white]

Exactly how I feel Cjay. We came up against a decent and well organised side and were a bit unlucky. It could easily have been a 1-0 win for us.

We were a bit crap in the second half, but you have to acknowledge that there are two teams on the pitch and Nuno had probably given them a bollocking.

Biggest issue for me is the lack of creativity and end product, that needs sorted quickly.

Although we helped their cause by constantly giving the ball away, the fluency of our passing disappeared after our lads had there cuppa at the break!

[Scoobychief]

dominated first half we never really created chances, bamford started season with a bang, but will struggle to score many, second half wolves turned on the pressure and we coudnt cope with it, a game of 2 halves. harrison and costa can run up and down the wings all day but the final ball is poor, missed our chance yet again to have bought a creative midfielder we all knew was needed, now will have to hang on until january before hopefully one comes in. i would much rather see rodrigo as striker and bamford behind him if we have to play with both of them. pablo neede now until at least january, koch was outstanding and pascal did very well. lets hope for a better turn out friday because we looked tired mid way thrugh that second half.

[rab_rant]

Wolves heads thought it won't need much to win this as we did our utmost to chuck the game away

Not true with 67% of the play we did our utmost to win the game. I can in no way fault the team in their commitment. Bamford had a goal disallowed and near the end both Poveda under Rodrigo had shots on goal which were blocked. the last 10 minutes it was all Leeds. the team never gave up

[Smudge3920]

Not true with 67% of the play we did our utmost to win the game. I can in no way fault the team in their commitment. Bamford had a goal disallowed and near the end both Poveda under Rodrigo had shots on goal which were blocked. the last 10 minutes it was all Leeds. the team never gave up

Concur Rab, well said

[Boo Radley]

A disappointing result.

First half we played well and same as the last two seasons against teams who park the bus we struggled to break Wolves down.

We don't have a number 10, which really hurts our end product. Closest we've got is Pablo, but we knew we weren't getting a full season out of him.

Since Saiz went we have failed to effectively replace him, and same with Chris Wood. Between Bamford and Rodrigo do we have a finisher? I'm not convinced we do.

We're overloaded with wingers: Costa, Pablo, Alioski, Harrison, Raphinha, Poveda, and Dallas and Ayling as wing backs.

But the lack of a genuine 10 will continue to hurt us and that should already have been addressed.

Totally agree.

From early on it felt like a game against a top Championship team from the last two seasons. We played some very slick football but never opened them, and especially not through the centre.

I thought Koch was majestic, Struijk was excellent and Meslier was spot on in everything asked of him. Theses are all important advances for us as they were tested last evening.

Costa started well and some of the link ups on the right looked promising. However it became apparent that we didn’t have any way in on goal from either wing. Wolves/Portugal knew what they were facing and managed each attack a bit too easily, as Portugeuse defences usually do.

I think the criticism of Harrison is a bit harsh as he faced the best right back we’ve come across so far in Semedo. He was excellent. Philips looked really out of sorts and this further weakened our centre. Picking up an unnecessary early booking didn’t help.

As White Riot said, not having a 10 meant they could concentrate on the wings and Bamford in the centre. Rodrigo struggled to find a place that he could receive and still do damage. Klich had some wonderful touches and passes but was still too peripheral to cause damage.

What did worry me is how light we often appeared in our tackles. We often try to flick a ball off an opponent when a solid foot in in front of the ball would be far better to stop a run at our defence. Also for the first time we looked tired after a massive running display. Ayling in particular looked shot by the end, but it was after another huge effort from him.

Wolves are a very good team. They are at this longer than us, and their experience told in the end in a very tight game. There was no disgrace in this loss. Aside from earlier positives, Raphinha and Poveda looked bright and we will learn. We just need a threat in the centre. Maybe Raphinha with his speed, two good feet and Brazilian flair may be the 10 we need - because this is the gap in our make up now.