I recognise quite a lot of what you say Nick, but that result made me feel a whole lot better. I’m almost at the point of wondering whether we might as well leave out our ‘critiques’, because none of those change much week-in, week-out :-(
That said, I would have subbed Harrison at half time, and it would have been the right call - I wonder if he got the Bielsa hairdryer - I suspect that means Bielsa stares at him for 10 minutes without a word spoken :-) Whatever, his volleyed cross and stunning goal were brilliant. MOTM though? No. A word on Raphinha, a lad who looks like he’s in a permanent bad mood. He’s becoming a very useful player indeed - his shooting, his speed are skills we knew he had, but the way he held the ball up for Alioski’s goal, when we had 6 swarming attackers against 3 defenders from a Newcastle attack, was brilliant - I suspect a month ago he’d have had a shot from 40 yards out, so real progress. I’m not going to read too much into this though, because Newcastle were pretty poor despite the points they’ve already racked up, but as a confidence booster it’s done wonders, and we go into the game against Scum with a real chance of getting something, although I’d settle for running rings around them and missing 45 chances to draw 0-0, which you can’t rule out :-( Let’s face reality though, we could be waking up today with Sam Allardyce as manager - those poor buggers! > On 17 Dec 2020, at 09:57, Nick <[email protected]> wrote: > > LUFC stat-tweet after the game: > > Pablo Hernandez: played 8 minutes; 12 successful passes; 4 in the final > third; 2 assists > > (although I think its fair to say that Harrison still had a bit of work to do > when he received PH’s pass) > > After the tribulations of the last couple of games, this just felt nice. It > doesn’t matter that Newcastle were not very good and will likely bother > relegation calculations more than most. It does matter that we are still > shocking at defending set pieces around the box, although we did at least > concede fewer. > > I don’t think the defence was any better, just that the opponents were worse: > Cooper almost made two horrendous cock-ups but recovered; Ayling was steady; > Dallas more solid in defence and did try getting forward a bit more (nice > anticipation to sneak in at the back post for the 3rd); Alioski tried to show > more discipline but was basically all over the place - if I gave points he’d > get 1 for effort and 1 for the goal and probably minus 1 for the lack of > marking their guy for the first goal. > > Bamford battered them, pulled them all over the shop and got his ‘sniffer, > goal following up Rodrigo’s header off the bar. Rodrigo and Raphina were both > lively in spells and when they were, they (and Leeds) looked like scoring at > any minute, but they were also strangely absent for spells. Harrison - along > with Alioski - was a fair bet for getting subbed at half time again, but his > delivery of the cross for Rodrigo to head home, which came from a Rodrigo > ball out to him on the wing - great movement from Rodrigo, and of course his > mazy run from inside his own half for the final goal, made us all look like > fools. For this goal though, he ran 50 yards without challenge…wasp-chewer > Bruce is not going to be happy with that. Harrison’s finish was top drawer. > > Philips quietly kept things ticking over; Klich was again guilty of trying > the killer pass each time rather than the simple ball. > > Meslier - did well the things that could reasonably be expected of him, but > didn’t have much chance with either goal. > > But for about 60 minutes, it was stressful. It was only when the confidence > finally came back and they started to believe that they could beat Newcastle, > that they actually looked comfortable in beating Newcastle. > > Now then, Sunday... > _______________________________________________ > 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/ > > Dorigo's Right Buttock... _______________________________________________ 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/ Dorigo's Right Buttock...
