A very good read indeed, and a fair assessmentof the game it feels. On Sun, 9 Dec 2018 at 16:27, Nicholas Armit via Leedslist < [email protected]> wrote:
> Thought this was a really good read (from Roofe plagues R's again in tale > of two penalties - Report - Queens Park Rangers News): > > | > | > | > | | | > > | > > | > | > | | > Roofe plagues R's again in tale of two penalties - Report - Queens Park ... > > Leeds won for a fourth game in a row, and QPR slipped to four without a > win, in a controversial match at rain-la... > | > > | > > | > > > > > > Leeds won for a fourth game in a row, and QPR slipped to four without a > win, in a controversial match at rain-lashed Elland Road on Saturday > afternoon. > > So the story goes, when Leeds went to South America to meet with Marcelo > Bielsa about the prospect of becoming their new manager one of their > concerns was just how a career managing at the highest level in his > homeland, Spain and, more recently, France, along with two international > jobs with Argentina and Chile, would prepare him for the notorious grind of > a Championship season. After all, how many tapes of Bolton v Reading cross > your desk when you’re in charge of Lille, Athletic Bilbao or Newell’s Old > Boys? > > What followed over the course of more than an hour was an intricate run > down of all the other 23 other sides in Leeds’ division, the style of their > respective managers, their best and worst players, the formations they’d > used during 2017/18, sexual orientation, relationship with the Pope and so > on at the end of which the two man Leeds delegation just looked at each > other and conceded it had been a “pretty good answer”. > > Note to Mark Hughes, that’s what meticulous looks and sounds like and a > man as famed for his obsessive preparation and training as Bielsa was > always going to have found plenty he liked in studying Queens Park Rangers’ > recent poor defensive performances against Stoke City, Rotherham United and > latterly Hull City. Steve McClaren went with the same system and personnel > again despite conceding nine times in four games and losing 3-2 at home the > previous week, inviting Leeds to pick away at all the same problems our > previous opponents had exploited. And so it proved, right from the first > whistle, with Leeds tripling up on Jake Bidwell down their right hand side > looking to exploit all space in which Jarrod Bowen had run amok a week > prior. > > The first quarter of an hour was traumatic. With Pablo Hernandez, one of > the cleverest players you’ll ever see at this level, and Jamie Shackleton, > in at full back for the injured Stuart Dallas, raiding down the right, > Rangers barely had chance to come up for air. Two minutes, Hernandez > crossed from the right, Kemar Roofe buried a powerful effort just wide of > the post with Joe Lumley beaten. Three minutes, Shackleton crossed from the > right and Hernandez volleyed wide. Five minutes, Alioski crossed from the > right, all the way through a crowded penalty area and into Joe Lumley’s > grasp via several near misses. Ten minutes, Pawel Wszolek missed a chance > to cut out a crossfield ball to the left, Saiz cut in from there and > unloaded a cross shot which struck Roofe and flew wide of the post. > > Ten minutes in and it felt like we’d been standing there our whole lives. > Any sort of score seemed likely at this stage. A 3-0, a 4-0, a 5-0, a > repeat of that dire 6-1 we suffered here once? I’d have been surprised at > none of this at this stage of the game. Rangers escaped from their own half > once, briefly, in the first quarter hour and wasted a Luke Freeman free > kick when they did so. After 17 minutes Joel Lynch and Joe Lumley started > flagrantly wasting time over a goal kick which, while making allowances for > an attempt to disrupt Leeds’ rhythm and slowing the relentless pace of the > hosts down a bit, was low even by the standards of this wretched division. > Roofe almost got on the end of an Alioski shot that deflected up in the air > and landed in the no-man’s land between defence and goalkeeper. QPR were > deep, tight, narrow and horribly exposed. It was starting to feel like a > looooooooooooong old afternoon in store for the few who’d paid the thick > end of 40 notes to stand in the freezing cold and support their team. > > But there turned out to be an element of Homer Simpson’s boxing career to > this onslaught. Rangers had been beaten about the head for several rounds, > but hadn’t gone down, and Leeds were in danger of punching themselves out. > Luke Freeman winning the ball high up the pitch midway through the first > half and setting up Ebere Eze for a steered shot towards the bottom corner > which was saved by Bailey Peacock-Farrell was the first chink of light and > moments later the sun broke through for real. Nahki Wells, light of foot > and stern of fringe, making absolute fools of first Kalvin Phillips and > then Pontus Jansson before racing clear to the edge of the box and > finishing beautifully into the far bottom corner. An incredibly difficult > chance, barely a chance at all when the ball first dropped wide right, > smoothly turned into a fine goal with a minimum of fuss and effort. God I > love that boy. > > What happened next was bizarre. Leeds are a confident team, on a three > game winning run and top of the league on a couple of occasions during this > afternoon as Borussia Norwich toiled with lowly Bolton. Elland Road is full > of people and voice, the locals once more believing the good times are > finally returning to this part of Yorkshire. And yet one QPR goal, against > the run of play, punctured the whole thing on and off the pitch. The crowd > went from raucous to completely silent, the team from dominant to stifled. > Leeds had fallen in a hole of surprising depth after a relatively minor set > back. > > Rangers had been clock running at 0-0, and that increased ten fold with a > lead to protect. Referee Peter Bankes, as we’ve come to expect from > Championship officials this season, did absolutely nothing to address it. > Pawel Wszolek, in particular, frequently strayed into the realms of taking > the absolute piss with his throw ins and delayed restarts down the right > side of the field. The majority of the last five minutes of the half were > taken up by an injury to defensive central midfielder Geoff Cameron, who > was subsequently replaced by Josh Scowen The Goblin Boy at half time, but > despite all that obvious cheating, and the goal, and the prolonged > celebrations, and the lengthy treatment for Cameron, Bankes added just > three minutes to the end of the first half. I’d expected the thick end of > six. Honestly, it was us causing it this week just as Hull had done to us > seven days prior, and it’s getting really, really silly now. > > Those three minutes were enough, however, for an equaliser. Pressure built > in the final moments of stoppage time, Rangers chucked bodies in the way of > shots, but a poked effort from Hernandez was cleverly flicked in by Roofe. > As with so many goals we’ve conceded of late, the ball went in with the > defence appealing for offside, but Leistner was so deep he really ought to > have been charged for a seat on the front row of the stand behind the goal > and had played Roofe on. You can’t defend as deep as we are doing at the > moment and expect to be catching anybody offside and we’ve now been caught > out trying to do so for the second goal at Stoke, the third against Hull > and the first here. We’ve got to find a way to get ten yards further up the > pitch. > > Leeds’ in-house television channel had the first half possession down as > 71% to the home side, and 21% to QPR at the break. I’ll just leave that > there. > > > > If conceding at such a late stage showed a lack of street smarts, > conceding a penalty immediately after half time was thick as mince. Quite > how Bankes managed to see Leistner handle the ball away from Roofe as he > pulled a long ball down in the penalty box I’m not sure – he was directly > behind it, with bodies blocking his view – but we know from Blackburn a > month ago that this particular referee won’t think twice when given the > chance to award a spot kick against Rangers and he was once again lightning > fast to turn one point into none. Leistner was booked for dissent. > > Leeds haven’t had a penalty in 59 games dating back to October 2017, so we > should have known the law of Jensen/Doyley would mean they got one against > us here. Roofe certainly didn’t look like a man short of practice, > confidently sweeping the kick into the bottom corner for his second of the > game, tenth of the season and sixth in three games against Rangers. Homey, > he’s not going to get tired, it’s Drederick Tatum. > > That looked like it might be that. Lumley saved nervously off to his left > as Roofe tried for a hat trick from range, then much more impressively from > close range on the other side as the former Oxford striker, once again, > sprung that creaking offside trap. Kicking unusually wayward though. > > A quiet drift away to a 3-1 or 4-1 now seemed the likely outcome. > > Not so. As in similar circumstances at Stoke, back QPR came. Angel Rangel, > fresh from signing a new contract to the end of the season, confused his > man by coming back onto his left foot at the byline creating time and space > to pick out an unmarked Nahki Wells who I’d have backed to hit the target > with everything I own before he skied the chance of the match over the bar. > Moments later he skipped in from the left flank and unleashed a far better > effort past Peacock-Farrell and fractionally wide of the far post but it > was the first chance that stung the most and he knew it. > > It was nice to see McClaren reach for Bright Osayi-Samuel rather than his > usual stock changes with a quarter of an hour left, and Wszolek’s hit and > miss form since the highs of Brentford have me wondering whether more > minutes or a start or three might come the former Blackpool man’s way soon. > As against Hull, Rangers looked immediately better and more threatening for > having him on. Less so Matt Smith, who laboured against his former club > once Leeds had brought on Halme to counter his aerial threat. Steve > McClaren the former England manager reaching for the biggest human being he > could find to try and plunder a point and Marcelo Bielsa the storied former > coach of Argentina doing likewise to counter him – so beautifully > Championship. > > In weather you could drown a duck in, QPR tried to pack the Leeds area > with bodies and force an equaliser by any means they could. Smith looked to > have been clearly hauled down by Janson when contesting a Rangel throw in > the box – the Swede’s arm wrapped around Smith’s throat was a big clue – > but it turns out Bankes’ eyesight isn’t that brilliant after all and a > linesman staring straight at it was, presumably, thinking about other > things. Confusion and collision between Phillips, usually a central > midfielder but pressed into service at the back here, and Peacock-Farrell > nearly spilled an open goal chance to Eze before he was removed. It just… > wasn’t…. quite…. dropping QPR’s way and when Mass Luongo tried and failed > and tried again and failed again to wiggle enough space in the area for a > late shot on the goal the ball eventually fell to Jake Bidwell who > improvised an improbable 20-yard lob over Peacock-Farrell with his weaker > right foot. The keeper, who looked like he’d fucked it from the moment it > left Bidwell’s boot, flung up a glove at the last minute to steer it away. > Luke Freeman was pelted with bottles and coins as he took the resulting > corner because… well, because Leeds. > > There was time left for Joel Lynch’s latest pitch for his annual Christmas > break – an entirely needless, reckless, horrific lunge at Klich that nearly > made orphans of the Pole’s children. Yellow card. Better luck next week > Joel, though you’re running out of games mate. > > Better than we thought it would be before the game. Certainly not as bad > as we feared after ten minutes. But a chance for at least a point lost > against a Leeds team that’s flying high without playing well, and wilted > surprisingly quickly after conceding the first goal. To allow them back > into the game with a defensive mistake and a penalty immediately before and > after half time showed a disappointing lack of street smarts from QPR who > are now four without a win. > > _______________________________________________ > Leedslist mailing list > Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist > To unsubscribe, email [email protected] > > Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ > > RIP Jimmy WAC-COE > _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ RIP Jimmy WAC-COE
