Leeds (A) - verdict

[Wolvensam]

Being content to soak pressure up & conserve energy is not the same as not turning up. I'm sure Nuno would like us to score more in the 1st half (he said so after the match yesterday), but its a clear plan to ensure we finish stronger than the opposition. And it works.

Sounded to me from Coady's post-match that we almost use the first half to try and suss teams out and find the gaps - particularly those we have never come up against before.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

31 games in all competitions in 2020 to date. 15 clean sheets and a further 6 games where we have only conceded once. That is the bedrock of our approach - for all the talk of evolving our style, that is never going to change.

 

[The Bear]

I missed the second half last night, but Leeds fans thought Semedo was decent:


"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."

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

He misjudged a couple of crossfield balls, not much wrong apart from that. Sure, they swung the ball in a fair bit (from both sides) but in an inefficient way, it was all from low quality positions, without much threat and they rarely had the numbers in the box anyway. Do that all day, doesn't bother me.

 

[Kenny]

I would say Semedo was fine right up until we took Podence off. Then he was on his own and they had 2 players on him and then the final 10 mins he was fucked.

Not sure if Adama was told to simply hug the half way line so we could take advantage of the space being left by Leeds.

 

[Carrotdude]

I was a bit concerned by Traore again last night. One trademark run up the pitch where he played Neto in was nice but the rest of the time he seemed to be playing at 50%, couldn’t really be bothered to help Semedo out and got pushed off the ball by Dallas a couple of times which shouldn’t be happening.
My only gripe with the second half was that once we scored we weren’t able to keep the ball very well again, although we were comfortable defensively we didn’t seem as in control as we used to when leading a game. Similar to the Fulham game actually.

 

[Wolvensam]

I think Traore was simply there to chase the big hoofs up field and help us run out - he did track back a couple of times to help Semedo out to be fair and cover behind him. Having Traore on also pushed the Leeds defensive line back 10 yards which helped us out.

 

[pacamac]

Thought for someone who'd just come on and therefore plenty of energy Traore's tracking back was awful/non existent

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Let's put a lid on this first half masterplan talk before it becomes the narrative please...

Finishing stronger and conserving energy is fine, but most of the first half we looked like a team of strangers whenever we had the ball, no need to re-write history

And had one shot on target in the 45th minute. Its not an unusual story at all. We have the worst first half scoring record in the league in 2020 I believe.

 

[prawnking]

Thought for someone who'd just come on and therefore plenty of energy Traore's tracking back was awful/non existent

I thought that too. And his forward play was half-hearted as well.

For all the talk of a new contract, has his descent into becoming more of a bit part player affected his attitude?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I just think by his nature he's always going to be hit and miss, and we're currently at a point where he simply isn't playing very well.

We got some prolonged form out of him last season which is the exception rather than the rule. Even then he went the entire second half of the season without scoring a goal in the league.

 

[Wolvensam]

I didn't think he was too bad... he's just not on the levels of Neto and Podence (and is just an entirely different player compared to those two, anyway).

 

[Lycan]

He misjudged a couple of crossfield balls, not much wrong apart from that. Sure, they swung the ball in a fair bit (from both sides) but in an inefficient way, it was all from low quality positions, without much threat and they rarely had the numbers in the box anyway. Do that all day, doesn't bother me.

This.

Semedo was good up until about the 70/75 minute mark, after which he started to tire and make a few silly mistakes. Remember, he was so knackered Vs Fulham that he was just lying down in the penalty area at one point. Clearly still struggling to complete 90 mins of Premier League football at this stage and Leeds are an especially tough team to play against.

It's not as simple as just 'stopping the cross' sometimes either. He was facing an overload a lot of the time, if he had tried to get tighter Leeds could've worked it around him. Sometimes the best option is to FORCE the cross.

The criticism of him is very harsh IMO, I've been very impressed with him so far. Once he gets up to speed and settles in to our formation he'll be a top player for us.

 

[Paul]

I didn't think he was too bad... he's just not on the levels of Neto and Podence (and is just an entirely different player compared to those two, anyway).

He served a purpose, that is all, as Deutsch eluded to he's having a barren spell but I'd rather he be poor for half an hour than the full 90 mins.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It's not as simple as just 'stopping the cross' sometimes either. He was facing an overload a lot of the time, if he had tried to get tighter Leeds could've worked it around him. Sometimes the best option is to FORCE the cross.

Aye. If it were as simple as just banging crosses into the box all the time then James Henry would be our highest paid player and David Moyes would still be the manager of Manchester United.

 

[Dinowolf]

I had to laugh at the two numpties commentating for Sky as Traore was getting ready to come on.
'Look they're massaging his arms (laughter from both). Well you have to have warm arms to play.'

Good to see they've done their homework and know what's going on.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Hinchcliffe was fine when he was doing the Championship games. Gone really poor over the last year or so though. Always some inane rubbish with his mate about how he wasn't a very good player (oh, how we laugh - he was actually decent, even if he did turn like a skip), no research, can't call a game properly, still doesn't understand how we play and unbearable whenever City are playing, painfully biased.

 

[Tredman]

He was banging on about Diego Jota last night..

 

[Paul]

Sounded to me from Coady's post-match that we almost use the first half to try and suss teams out and find the gaps - particularly those we have never come up against before.

Now I find that a bit odd, let alone all the matches have been televised up till now, do you think we kicked off last night without a thought of what and how Leeds were going to play, I think that was a bit of a cover up for ' we got the formation wrong, but sorted it second half'

 

[Dinowolf]

Now I find that a bit odd, let alone all the matches have been televised up till now, do you think we kicked off last night without a thought of what and how Leeds were going to play, I think that was a bit of a cover up for ' we got the formation wrong, but sorted it second half'

To be fair to Coady he was trying to answer a question from Carragher about why Wolves are usually better in the second half.

He said that it was basically down to game management and reminded him we scored 2 early goals against Sheff. Utd., which we'd like to do every game, as we do not have a deliberate tactic of playing poorly/slowly in the first half of matches.

IIR Nuno 'tweaked' the formation in the 1st half and Pod nearly scored just before half-time. We then played higher up the pitch in the 2nd half.