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Comments
Moyes got it wrong today.
Granted no one had a good game but Diop is week in week out whereas the others are few and far between
We missed Soucek today
This side hasn’t got what it takes to cement it’s place in the top four, it’s almost a ‘bottle it’ mentality like Spurs. Chance to go 5 clear of 5th & we blow it.
Also, again, Rice. Lack of responsibility from him today & poor Lanzini often playing as a DM. Not good enough.
Those back two need replacing now. If Moyes can’t see it, then that’s a huge issue. I would also like Johnson back in at RB.
We need to actually show a bit of ambition now. Sitting 4th & bringing on Masuaku & Yarmolenko & a kid to change the game?
Nobody else in the top 8 would have lost 3-2 at home to that Leeds team today.
Diop was poor dealing with it & passing it, Vlasic makes a hash of it, Coufal is miles out of position & Fab has to come & get that but hesitated.
IMO Vlasic must be sold as like Haller at a loss, he's simply a good player, but not good enough.....
We need to get a couple in if possible, not sure it's gonna happen tho........
Didn't deserve anything today, but that miss by Bowen at end was not good.....
Still, 4th in the league, better than 4th from bottom....
A reason to be cheerful....
Hopefully Soucek is recovered for the next game because we will need him against Man U. Lanzini tried his best to be busy but he doesn't read the game like a defensive midfielder, so his positioning for tackling isn't always good against players who are comfortable on the ball like Leeds mostly are.
Lost opportunity but I'm sure we'll bounce back. Hopefully Zouma's back for the next game.
As I said earlier, we knew in May that we'd be playing plenty of games. We didn't do enough to make the squad strong enough to cope with that, IMO. Masuaku, Yarmolenko and a 17 year old from the bench to save a PL game is poor. Yes, Benrahma is missing, but if he was here it would have been Vlasic from the bench, which wouldn't be much better based on what we've seen.
I don't think any of us expect 4th, but to get even 6th this season we can't afford to be losing these games.
As I said, nobody else in the top 7 loses to them today like that. We don’t have the right mentality yet as a club.
Also, while Rice looked good, his lack of discipline was the source of a lot of issues today imo.
I am seeing a lot of comments on Twitter along the lines of ‘Rice, class above everybody else on the pitch’. I thought he was a massive issue &, if Moyes asked him to play like that, that’s a massive mistake. Lanzini was the main DM. Either play Kral or you tell Rice to sit deep.
Although we have been so much better since Cress has come back into the side he didn't cover himself in glory for both their first 2 goals. Also, Lanzini showing he's not a natural DCM with his positioning for their 1st. Then, Coufal having pushed right up when the ball was in our own third to leave Harrison free for their 3rd.
I actually thought Diop was playing relatively well first half, continuing on from a better performance Vs Norwch. However, after he got skinned he completely lost his mojo. I'd still like to see if a stretch alongside Zouma will up his game, but his football brain defensively is too often poor.
Rice is phenomenal. However if we are playing him and Lanzini as the middle two, he MUST be told to hold more. Dawson and Diop simply didn't have enough shielding in front of them.
While it wasn't Vlasic's best game, I thought he was providing some useful moves. I still think akin to Benrahma, this season is a settling in one - don't forget he was playing in the Russian league prior - and that next season he'll hopefully start properly paying back our investment. IMO we were significantly worse once Masuaku came on. Arthur often lacks a footballing brain, but on top of that his confidence is currently through the floor. He is making even simple short passing errors, and too scared to show for the ball.
We were overall poor, but at 2-2 we were playing alright, had momentum and I thought the win was coming. Still SO annoyed at Coufal's positioning that allowed their 3rd. We were completely second best from then on.
What a waste of this opportunity for our position. I really feel our mentality was thinking this was a win before we kicked off. In the prem, every match is a challenge and needs to be fought for; we are having a great season, but we can't get over confident, 100% concentration and effort is needed.
Hopefully this gives our side a kick up the bum and this is the last of this sort of performance. Also, further suggests we could do with a couple of quality extra bodies this window.
I do concede we could also be suffering from tiredness, but the next two games have a better gap so hopefully we can have a bit of a rest.
Overall pretty disappointed, but we are still having a good season. Onwards and upwards (hopefully!).
TL;DR - I'm annoyed!
All credit to Leeds (sorry Wombat), they had half a first eleven were under the cosh at times yet look how they made the most of every chance that came along.
We however should never be guilty of defending so poorly against such a scrapped together team, this was not Liverpool hitting three past us at home with Mo Salah leading the line, this was Leeds with bare bones.
This one is on Moyes for me
He chose Lanzini to partner Rice despite having Krul on the bench and neither ended up supporting the defence when we found ourselves always chasing the game from early on. Had we scored first or got ahead at any time I think we would have won.
He made two substitutions which made us less likely to score with each one. Vlasik and Fornals were dangerous and Fornals had already scored with a cracking finish. Yarmi has offered zero each time he has been played and Arthur is a defender, one who is good going forward admittedly. It was the Yarmi one which lacked all imagination. Either take of Vlasik and introduce Oko Flex and give the guy a chance or take off Vlasik and bring Krul on, ask him to sit as a shield to the defence as a DM should so that Rice can properly move into attack. He may be a Midfielder but he is also the most talented player on the pitch and so so much more of a direct threat than Yarmalenko. His subs lacked imagination and looked to arise from knowing he needed make some rather than being creative.
In conclusion Leeds deserved to take home three points and we were just West Ham again, fought really hard after some poor results against Soton and Burnley to get ourselves in a good position again with two away wins, and then blew it back at home against a team we should have beaten as comfortably as we did last week.
I said in midweek if we missed chances it would come back to haunt us, but was told we won, we got three points, what would a couple of extra goals have mattered. Well Bowen didn't score at the end and he could have had four or five v Norwich so I take no joy in being proved right today.
DM has been reported as saying he isn't going to just bring in bodies this window & admits to being a bit picky. When we are regularly finishing in the top 4 & winning cups then he can be picky but for the love of god can we have a new CF & CB.
I get that we'll lose games, but this was an important one against an out-of-form and decimated Leeds team. As has been said already, by myself and others, our options to influence the game were once again poor. Moyes is clearly naming players on the bench just to make up the numbers; Kral and Oko-Flex being the most obvious. He has no intention of using them and if he doesn't trust them then he should have pushed to improve the squad.