If they hadn’t had that last minute winner I would feel that this was a pretty good day at the office - 7 first teams injuries, playing two relatively inexperienced youngsters - a bench of 12 year olds - against a seasoned team having a pretty good start. One all would have felt OK. This doesn’t.
At 1-0, we hit the post (Raphinha again - they didn’t know what to do about him, so they kicked him, when they could catch him); had a good penalty shout turned down and missed two or three more decent chances. The came their disallowed goal. A high ball in, several people go up, Meslier is in a heap on the ground, someone bundles in the goal. Leeds players are incensed, WHam players seem uncertain. They go to VAR - and show it on the big screen, which I didn’t think was how it was done - the video clearly shows their #9 leading with his elbow and smashing it through Meslier’s face - the keeper’s head snaps back on impact - so the goal is disallowed, the Leeds crowd is going mental for a red card for their guy, instead he gets a yellow. Minutes later their #9 clatters Cooper, again with his elbow. A bookable offence…not this time. Then someone follows through on Meslier - who apparently had to change his shirt after the first incident, and I can only guess that that was because of blood - there’s no foul given. Meslier goes nuts at the ref and earns a yellow card. Finally they get a deserved equaliser - the pressure has been good and sustained - but the manner of it was less so, apparently a double deflection (we couldn’t see what happened), eventually going in off Firpo’s backside. Then with 5 minutes of injury time clocked up, their #9 muscles through and scores the winner. Cue mini pitch invasion by the W Ham fans. That’s the bones of it. We were the better team in the first half. Although both sides created and wasted good chances / half-chances. Cresswell stood up and wrestled with that #9 all game and had a really solid game. He’s a definite on the team sheet for Watford. He was a little nervous in some of his distribution later in the game, when there was less movement ahead of him, but that’s about the only fault, I can find and that is being picky. Cooper would now be my 5th choice (perhaps even 6th after Kalvin…) centre half. W Ham spent the whole game battering Meslier and Raphinha - every corner they got that #9 was leaning on the keeper trying to rough him up. The ref pulled him up a couple of times. Once Raphinha went off, we had no real outlet - Rodrigo, Harrison, Roberts combined didn’t give the team what Raph or Bamford on their own usually do. And we just fell deeper and deeper. Meslier - had a sterling game in very difficult circumstances - deserved better protection from the referee - that was a red card challenge. Made several good saves. Shackleton - well, I think that is the best right back performance this season - mobile, good challenging and positional play - not the tallest, so liable to get beaten in the air but there’s not much he can do about that Firpo - another ‘best game so far’ for us I think…there is work to be done, to be convincing, but it is not out of his reach Cresswell - said it all above - stand out game Cooper - his kind of battle, this game, and he did OK Phillips - is in danger of moving beyond some of his team mates…he still makes mistakes, and he still is not the fastest, but without him we are much less of a team, he holds it all together. But he can’t do it himself. I think he really misses having the guile of Hernandez next to him. Klich - one of his better games, pushing forward from the middle, covered a lot of ground, ultimately faded Dallas - was solid in his own way, but lacks the sparkle of 6 months ago Raphinha - was basically unplayable yesterday - an absolute joy to watch Rodrigo - what do you do with a ‘forward’ who is tremendously hard working, but never on the end of crosses, rarely gets a shot away and genuinely seems to pose no threat to the opposition goal? James - played the first half. Barely noticed him Harrison on for James in the second half - had a couple of flurries and one scuffed shot but seemed lethargic - someone said he might not be fully recovered from Covid and I guess that’s fair Roberts - came on and does what he does but this rapidly proving not to be good enough. He’s basically doing the same as he did for two years in the Championship. Somerville - came on, made a couple of good links / runs down the wing, but they came to nothing. I suspect if W Ham had scored 5 minutes earlier we might have had Geldhart on. It was a good battling performance that tailed off under pressure - everyone seemed tired towards the end. But its really difficult to swallow the defeat to that goal by that player. I would like a win, and I think we’re too good to not get one soon…we just need some injured players back and a bit of luck. Nick _______________________________________________ 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/ Rest in Peace Guy, and wear your hat!
