Blackburn Rovers 1 Leeds United 0 – Attack! Attack! Attack! When Leeds concede a sloppy goal and the opposition park the bus in front of the goal that tends to be the end of the match. It’s a tactic a number of teams have used against Leeds and Blackburn did it here. Farke’s response to this was throwing on all his forward players and didn’t work. It looked messy rather dominating and the team shape was confusing.
The Leeds fans were quietened by the poor response from the players after the early goal which was a shame as a third of the stadium was away supporters. Blackburn Rovers are hard to fathom and beat Leeds at Elland Road late last season but Leeds have tended to win at Ewood Park.
The game was a stiff test for Leeds players who were slower out of the blocks than Blackburn, much improved in the second half with most of the possession but blunt in attack.
This was not Piroe’s type of match as the wingers tended to go for high crosses that the tall Blackburn defenders headed away easily. His best moment was when Blackburn tried to pass out and he nearly snatched the ball from the keepers. After Gnonto nearly dispossessed a defender the keeper stuck to kicking the ball out.
Whilst it was a physical game for Leeds they were often late to the ball and Tanaka learned the hard way with the penalty given against him in the first half. Cantwell, who had a good game aaginst Leeds, earned them the three points.
Rothwell was mostly dangerous with his free kicks and corners but with no end product. Struijk and Gnonto were making their moves but Blackburn defended with their lives. Blackburn were happy to stay in their own half and wait for counter attacks.
Predictably on seventy minutes Farke started throwing on forwards – Ramazani, Bamford (for his height) and Joseph. Ramazani was a long way off his ability, instead picking up his second yellow card in two matches as a sub. To his credit he had the ball in the net but disallowed due to being offside. As Leeds groped towards that precious equaliser with their forwards the Leeds fans joined in with “Attack! Attack! Attack!”
Instead of clinching that equaliser Leeds were still plagued by Cantwell looking for a second goal. As Blackburn looked to secure their win, their time-wasting was second to none. Leeds played the match to their game plan – dominate possession and walk the ball into the net. But still looked second best. Aaronson, Solomon and James were not on it today. Only Gnonto looked like scoring.
Man of the match: Willy Gnonto was clearly Leeds’ most threatening striker.
