What a game ! First 20 minutes we hardly had a kick and I thought there's a chance we could be embarrassed. Dallas was struggling defending at left back (he isn't) and Ayling was having a nightmare against the lively Sterling. I did however reassure myself with the fact that City had done exactly the same to Leicester last week and then collapsed and as it turned out they did exactly the same. We really struggled to get out of our half with Philips totally swamped in midfield. I don't put all the blame on Philips here. Yes he's pedestrian and it was predcitable to see him outpaced and outfought by De Bruyne and co but he was on his own. Roberts and Klich did little to help him. Klich's running and flicks are impressive but when we're undeer the kosh like that I'd like to see him come deep and help Philips. He didn't. Sterling's goal was inevitable but a better clearance from Cooper would have ended the attack. We did so show some signs that we could match them towards the end of the half with Dallas's chance (pen if he'd gone down) and Ayling creating then missing our best chance. Second half was a different story and in a 2 year of highs under Bielsa I'd put this right up there. Rodrigo and Poveda came on and made a difference. Rodrigo looks a class above and totally different to the player we saw in those early games. Bielsa has got him up to speed fast. I criticised Bielsa for starting with Roberts over Rodrigo but as always Bielsa was right. He knew we'd be chasing the ball for most of the first half and that would be wasted energy for Rod. Every Leeds player stepped up. Ayling stuck to his task and as always gave a really good, committed performance. Dallas also stuck to his task and started to come forward. Poveda scared them to death and Philips grew into the game. It was a great team effort and we deserved the goal after Rodrigo had gone close seconds earlier. Yes the last 10 minutes were hard but we continued to break when we could and I wasn't nervous at all to be honest. There was some desperate defending from us at the death and it was a big call to throw young Davis on and it nearly backfired (Very Good Davis). We deserved a point and it's another step to proving that we can live in this league. Are City the team of previous seasons ? Possibly not without a striker but they're still pretty good. Miesler -7. Didn't have a lot to do really when you think about it. He struggled a bit with distribution first half. Ayling - 7. Torrid first 20 minutes but he came back well. Dallas - 7 - Ditto Koch - 8. What a player. He's making us forget Ben White pretty quickly. Some great blocks. Cooper - 7. Apart from that mistake for the goal he did well and defended strongly on many occassions. Philips - 6. Poor first half but he grew into the game and was winning tackles second half. Costa - 7. Worked hard , ran back. Not much end product though. Klich - 7. Always running, always trying but was absent for long periods in the first half. Allioski - 5. Didn't do himself any favours. Bamford - 7. Had a one on one which I think was offside but didn't ever look like scoring. Worked hard. Roberts - 5. He's not a no 10. Subs: Poveda - 8. Live wire. I really like the look of this lad. Rodrigo - 8. Changed the game. Davis - 5. Very good Davis. _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected]
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