The trials and tribulations of supporting Leeds United
Cooper changed everything. In spite of being first to the ball his follow through was judged dangerous and after the ref had his own look at VAR the yellow card was upped to a red – the letter of the law. Leeds ended the first half on ten men. Bamford had to sacrificed so Struijk could bolster the defence.
Leeds defence was assured without any evidence of being vulnerable to set pieces. Llorente was a rock in defence picking up so many balls coming into the box and filtering them out. Midfield with Harrison, Roberts and Raphinha surged into the Sheffield United box with over 20 shots reigning in goal, but finishing was missing for Leeds with statistics not translating in to goals. There were so many almost moments.
Beautiful chaos Fulham probably had more to gain from this match with their relegation battle but Leeds had a curse to break. Early on it looked like Leeds were still getting used to VAR in the Premier League with yet…
Bamford makes his 100th appearance for the club. Koch makes his return to the squad by being on the bench. Finally we may play the first team we wanted to at the start of the season. Cooper has been dropped from Defence in preference for the pace of the returning Struijk – Bielsa clearly has a lot of confidence in him as a growing player. Having Roberts and Harrison starting together is yet another combination Bielsa is trying and that will be a lot of pace if they can link up effectively with Bamford and Raphinha.
It was much more like the Leeds that fight in the second half with West Ham reduced to the occasional counter attack. It is just a joy to watch Raphinha on the ball, clever swivels and caresses of the ball combined with a taunting attitude to defenders to come and get the ball if they dare.
Bielsa did his pep talk again at half time about upping the energy and getting the ball out of our own half – we simply dominated the second half with Villa reduced to long balls to El Ghazi who hoofed them from a distance to nowhere in particular.
Leeds went into this match with Southampton on the back of two defeats. I felt a win was needed to stave off any sense of Leeds going into decline mid way through the season. Southampton had pulled of an excellent draw with Chelsea but have been without a win for a few games now so both teams had a point to prove – three in fact.
Leeds headed into the Wolves match on the back of a difficult defeat against Arsenal where we found ourselves 3-0 at half but after a talking to by Bielsa, came out with more energy in the second half to pull…
Leeds United went into this match with Leeds having thrown the kitchen sink at Arsenal at Elland Road last year ending with a draw, and now in February being one place above them in the league table. This match saw…
Leeds lost 4-1 away to Crystal Palace earlier this season so would we be destroyed on the counter attack again? The last match losing to Everton was a painful defeat for Leeds and we needed to see a positive response…
