Leeds United 3 Portsmouth FC 3 – Heroes and Villains

Leeds United 3 Portsmouth FC 3 – Heroes and Villains.  What could have been – and should have been a deserved win for Leeds United was frustrated by players not performing, but with other players saving the day to earn the equaliser.

With all the talk from Farke and the players about being ready for the new season (after the severe player issues last summer), this was supposed to have been a confident start.  Instead it was far from convincing.  Farke has to work quickly with the team to fix the problems right through the team before we can pretend to be Championship winners.

Let’s start with goal-keeping.  Meslier may be maturing but two goals conceded from just four shots on target by Portsmouth is concerning.  Meslier is a candidate for being dropped while we settle the defence.  Which brings us to the defence.  Bogle on the right and Struijk on the left brought us two new(-ish) arrivals this year so a risk of being still raw. And they were poor.  Bogle was out of position for the first goal conceded and Rodon’s forward passing and defensive headers tended to miss their target – his own players.

Midfield was strong with Ampadu showing his mettle as captain but hampered by Rutter’s chaotic gameplay – every time he was given the ball he was surrounded by at least two players and lost it. His pirouette’s were pretty to watch but he needs to be quicker and sharper with his passing.  We simply lost the ball too often.  The other point about Rutter is his service to Joseph was poor.  We did not see the best of Joseph because he didn’t get to see enough of the ball.

But there were positives.  Portsmouth were restricted to four shots on goal, and didn’t have any corners.  When the one touch passing worked it was exciting, and we hit the cross bar three times in the first ten minutes of the first half, and scored in the first minute of the second half.  The Gnonto experiment on the left is still undecided but he was certainly enjoying his game, as we were his.

It was a tragic comedy for the Leeds fans to watch.  To earn an early penalty and then fall behind twice, and then, after a 95th minute equaliser, only to miss a clear winner was painful.  What started off as so promising at the start of each half then fell away as Portsmouth only needed to have sight on goal to score.  Portsmouth were clearly nervous with the wave of attacks from Leeds but our high number of shots either hit the cross bar or tamely shot at the keeper.  It is a crude fact that you only have to hit the back of the net once in a match to win, whilst the opposition can have 20 shots and still not score.

Whilst the match was riveting to watch at times as the players moved forward with pace and agility (unlike last season when it was sideways), it was equally painful as too many forward passes went astray as the other player was not expecting it.  This was compounded by being behind twice – composure on the ball was sorely needed.

It was a pleasure to see the return of James who certainly gave pace on the right but the Portsmouth defence dealt with the crosses well.

The low point of the match was towards of the end of the first half when Leeds were behind 1-2 and the misery was compounded as the heavens opened – there was even a waterfall off the roof.  It was that kind of day.

The low point of the second half came when Farke killed off the players positivity with three substitutions together that destabilised the formation and Leeds couldn’t form an attack at first. It looked odd to take off Gnonto but, in 95th minute Aaronson scored to equalise.  He turned from hero to villain with a shockingly bad miss in the dying seconds that would have given Leeds the deserved win.  Players collapsed on the ground and Meslier punched the grass in disbelief.

Player of the match:  Gnonto for his fight back urging on the crowd