Bielsa said after the match that we’d created 10 clear chances to win the game and that should have been enough. He’s right but how many times have we heard him say that since he arrived? It’s becoming almost as frequent as Simon Grayson saying ‘we put a shift in today’.
Time and time again we got into goal scoring positions but due to the lack of quality of the final ball, which seemed at times to gravitate towards a red shirt, we failed to trouble the keeper. Jack Harrison was the main culprit. Yes he got himself into some great positions and made some great runs but time and time again he failed to find a white shirt. This got worse in the second half when you almost expected him to mess up when played in by yet another great cross field ball. Great things are expected of Harrison this season but on this showing he is struggling to live up to the pre-season hype. Forest offered little in the first half and looked like they’d come for a point by sitting deep and making it difficult for us. At times, our play was laboured and we struggled to get the ball moving through midfield. The passing around at the back was laboured and whilst this seems like taking control away from home it looks like a team lacking ideas when we’re doing it for 5 minutes at home. The main problem as I saw it was that Philips, Klich and Forshaw are all too similar and none were making runs which meant the only options to move the ball forward were long cross field balls to Harrison or down the right with Hernandez and Dallas. Luckily both those options were good for us. Second half I thought Forest improved as they realised we were toothless and they could actually hurt us. They were a bit unlucky for our goal as the Forest man’s tackle ricocheted to Hernandez who placed it past the keeper. Forest then brought Ameobi on they give it a go. Ameobi was fast and direct and we struggled to contain him. One of those runs resulted in the corner from which they scored. Forest were only going to score from a set piece or long throw but you sort of knew it was inevitable. From the NE upper it was hard to see what happened for the goal so I’ll wait for someone who saw it on the tv to tell me whether it was a defensive fuck up or unlucky. It just looked like we failed to clear. We huffed and puffed at the end and Costa showed us he should have come on 29 minutes earlier - bad mistake from Bielsa. Klich was out on his feet after 60 minutes. Allioski replaced the ineffective Harrison but he looked ring rusty and failed to make an impact. Surely Jack Clarke on the left wing would have been the better option ? What’s the point of having him back on loan ? Overall, we should have won, but we didn’t and we need to be better if we’re expecting promotion this season. Forest were a big physical team that made it hard for us. They offered little but in a way they did a job on us. Kiko - 5. Had literally nothing to do other than pick the ball out of the back of the net. His kicking was dodgy today. Dallas - 8. I thought he was arguably our best player today. His forward running is direct and opens things up. I thought he also defended well. Douglas - 6. Did ok, got forward first half and nearly got himself in a goal scoring position only to be denied by a great Forest tackle. Tired second half. White - 7. Generally sound but he had one or 2 moments where he came off 2nd best. Still decent for a new centre back. think he reads the game well. Cooper - 8. I thought he defended very well and some of his cross field balls were very effective. His challenge in the 2nd half when Forest were attacking was top drawer. Took ball and man. Great stuff. Phillips - 6. Didn’t do anything wrong. Some great passes and some duff passes into space. Always available and always working hard but at times he’s so pedestrian it’s untrue. There’s no way this lad is a premiership footballer but he’s doing ok. Forshaw - 7. I thought he was our best midfielder today. Never spectacular but there was a spell in the 2nd half where he just kept us together through harrying and winning the ball. Ultimately I think him , Philips and Klich are too similar to play together at home (maybe away is better). Klich - 4. I’m worried about Klich. There’s no doubts that he is not the same player we saw scoring all those goals in the first half of last season. We saw a steady decline last season and this seems to have continued in the first 2 games. Watching him today he’s playing almost as a 2nd striker and plays as advanced as Bamford. He rarely comes deep for the ball like he used to. Have us legs gone a bit ? He was out on his feet 2nd half, almost dragging his legs around the pitch and I was really surprised that Bielsa left him on that long. Worrying. Hernandez - 7. Not himself today despite scoring a goal and looking threatening at times in the right in the first half. I don’t like him playing on the right wing and I’d rather he was moved central leaving the wings for Clarke and Costa. His passing as always was inconsistent. Harrison - 4. I’ve already wrote about him. I’m sure he’ll have other days when he gets into the positions he did today where he either scores or assists but today just wasn’t his day. Bamford - 6. Worked tirelessly and had 2 great chances to score. He went close with both , one hit the bar and the other a yard wide after he’d excellently controlled and then lobbed the keeper. I’m not sure this role suits him as he’s asked to do a lot of running and battling. That’s not his game. What happened to 2 strikers up front ? Why do we seem to accept playing one lone striker at home ? Doesn’t make sense to me. Play Eddie alongside him. Subs : Allioski - struggled to make an impact. Costa - looked threatening. Should start next game. Bielsa - I thought he got it wrong today - tactics and subs. Undefeated. Time for wine. Jim Moran - I was in Scabby Taps after the game and saw someone who looked like your Twitter profile crossing the road. Was it you ? _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ RIP Jimmy WAC-COE
