Leeds team
vs Brighton 19th August 2014
GK Silvestri
LB Warnock DC Pearce DC Cooper
RB Byram
DM Austin
LM Tonge RM Bianchi
AM Murphy
ST Smith ST Sharp
Subs Taylor, Bellusci ,Wooton,
Norris, Cook, Poleon, Ajose
When Sergio Leone directed the
1966 film ‘The Good, the Bad & the Ugly’, little did he realise that he was
writing the script for the opening 3 games of Leeds’ Championship 2014/15
campaign. Leone’s film has the blurb ‘For three men the Civil War wasn’t Hell,
it was practice,’ this sums up Leeds’ approach to all three games really where
there were equal parts Hell and practice. So, how do the games fit into Leone’s
film? Easy: Il Buono (the Good) –
Middlesbrough, il Bruto (the Bad) –
Brighton and il Cattivo (the Ugly) –
Millwall. The film tells the story of a search for missing gold by three
mercenary individuals which ends in Sad Hill Cemetary. Leeds fans are looking
for a similar vein of gold amidst what is becoming crumbling tombstones of
performances and hoping to avoid heading for their own Sad Hill Cemetary.
After a lamentable loss to
Millwall, followed by a late 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough, courtesy of Billy
Sharp's 88th minute goal, Leeds fans had the prospect of a potentially tricky
game against Brighton and Hove Albion. Brighton, who finished in 6th place
after the 2013/14 Championship campaign (before losing by a 6-2 aggregate score
to Derby County in the Play-off first round) haven't had such an auspicious
start to the new campaign. In their opening two games, Brighton have suffered
twin 1-0 reversals at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday (9th August) and
Birnmongham City (16th August) and find themselves languishing in 22nd place in
the League table. Last season's corresponding fixture at Elland Road ended in a
2-1 victory for Leeds United (Ross McCormack and Luke Murphy scoring) in front
of last season's highest Championship crowd of 33,432.
Brighton arrive in LS11
boasting a less-than-impressive overall performance score of 67 from the two
games so far with other, telling statistics that will encourage Leeds fans
being that Brighton are not very effective in combative situations winning only
48% of defensive duels in the opening two games of this season (29/66 tackles,
12/27 take-ons, 40/75 headed duels - source Squawka.com). Coupled with the loss
of one of their mainline strikers from last season, Leo Ulloa, to
newly-promoted Leicester City, tonight's game could have been a potential
'banana skin' for them.
 |
| Photo Credit: Independent.co.uk |
And then it all went wrong for
Leeds United – Brighton tore Leeds apart at will in the opening exchanges and
deservedly went ahead 1-0 when Joao Teixeira steered a shot past Marco
Silvestre after advantage was played following a foul on Craig Mackail-Smith.
It would be safe to say, with absolute certainty that Leeds were outplayed over
the first 45 minutes; Coach Hockaday expressed as much after the game. Thing
was, Leeds were pretty much outplayed the whole game. At one stage, on social
media, one guy commenting said that a “blind dart thrower would get more of his
shots on target than Leeds United.” He wasn’t that far wide of the mark; unlike
most of Leeds’ shots tonight.
Table of Marco Silvestre’s
contribution
Saves
|
Dist.
Acc. *(%)
|
Avg.
Dist (M)
|
Punch
|
Catch
|
Claim Success (%)
|
1
|
73
|
40
|
0
|
1
|
100%
|
Source Squawka.com
Marco Silvestre had a quieter
time today than against Middlesbrough on Saturday, despite conceding 2 goals
today. Silvestre’s distribution accuracy today (measured where the ball reaches
an intended team-mate) was much higher at 73% accuracy (16 from 22 attempts)
than it was during the victory over Middlesbrough (66% accurate); he was
accurate on 4 of his throws to team-mates with an average throw distribution of
26 metres. Another positive that Marco Silvestre can take from today’s game is
that he was 100% successful on the 1 catch he chose to make which resulted in a
save from a Brighton chance.
Table of Defenders’ contributions
Tackles
W
(C*) L (C*)
|
Aerial
Duels (%)
|
Int
(C*)
|
Blks
(C*)
|
Clr
(C*)
|
||
Stephen Warnock
|
1 (8)
|
3 (4)
|
60
|
2 (13)
|
0 (1)
|
2 (15)
|
Jason
Pearce
|
0 (1)
|
2 (1)
|
53.85
|
1 (5)
|
1 (2)
|
5 (20)
|
Liam Cooper
|
1 (3)
|
1 (1)
|
100
|
2 (4)
|
1 (3)
|
5 (13)
|
Sam Byram
|
0 (6)
|
3 (5)
|
60
|
3 (6)
|
0 (0)
|
4 (9)
|
Totals
|
2
|
9
|
8
|
4
|
16
|
|
‘Aerial Duels’ – cumulative over
season
C* - Cumulative totals
Source Squawka.com
It wasn’t a good performance by
the Leeds’ back four tonight, far from it – the four players combining for a
grand total of -73 ‘performance score’ on the Squawka website. After Saturday’s
halcyon days performance against
Middlesbrough, tonight’s game against Brighton represented Warnock worse game of
the season with 3 lost tackles –against only 1 successful tackle. However,
Warnock’s overall ‘performance score’ of -9 pales against Sam Byram’s -45 total
for tonight’s game. The 2 tackles won by
the back four seems lamentable over the course of 90 minutes, given that
collectively they were unsuccessful in 9 tackles; this giving the defensive
unit a 22.22% success rate in this defeat to Brighton.
 |
| Picture Credit: I'd Radebe Leeds |
A player coming in for ‘a lot of
stick’ in most Leeds’ performances where there is a defensive failing, is the
figure of Rodolph Austin. Austin has started the three games this season in a
distinct defensive midfield position, sitting in front of the two centrebacks;
it is with this in mind that I present the following comparative table, over
the opening 3 games of this season, highlighting Rodolph Austin’s defensive
contributions in the same categories as the ‘defensive four’.
Table of Rodolph Austin’s
defensive contributions – opening 3 games
Tackles
W L
|
Aerial
Duels (%)
|
Int
|
Blks
|
Clr
|
||
Rodolph
Austin
|
9
|
8
|
60
|
9
|
0
|
8
|
‘Aerial Duels’ – cumulative over
season
Source Squawka.com
Rodolph Austin’s figures this
season do not single him out as significantly worse defensively than any
established member of the ‘back four’; indeed his figures compare quite well to
all the defenders played across the back at Leeds in the opening 3 games across
all categories. Indeed, from tonight’s game, Austin had 3 interceptions inside
his own half with 2 of these being central to the goal.
Table of Midfielders’
contributions – Passes During Game
Fwd
(C*)
|
Bwd
(C*)
|
Success %
|
Chances
(C*)
|
Assists
(C*)
|
|
Rodolph
Austin
|
43 (123)
|
17 (53)
|
83
|
0 (0)
|
0 (0)
|
Michael Tonge
|
34 (63)
|
23 (51)
|
84
|
0 (0)
|
0 (0)
|
Luke
Murphy
|
12 (49)
|
11 (38)
|
75
|
0 (4)
|
0 (0)
|
Tommaso Bianchi
|
19 (48)
|
17 (26)
|
72
|
0 (0)
|
0 (0)
|
‘Passing Success’ – cumulative
over season
C* - Cumulative totals
Source Squawka.com
Again,
the Leeds United midfield was simply over-run against Brighton with many
pointing the finger of blame and the ‘diamond formation’ employed by Coach
Hockaday which leaves two players in the ‘traditional’ midfield area with one
more set back and another set more forward. As a result of that vagary Brighton
were able to flood the midfield with 5 players courtesy of their starting 4-4-1-1
formation
Yet gain
Rodolph Austin was Leeds United’s most profitable midfield player in terms of
his number of passes in this game (60 successful passes – 90% success) but it’s
the actual accuracy, combined with average length of pass type that makes his
figures that more impressive.
Table of Rodolph
Austin pass types/average length vs Brighton
Long Ball
(mtrs)
|
Backward
(mtrs)
|
Forward
(mtrs)
|
|
Rodolph
Austin
|
(43mtrs)
|
(21 mtrs)
|
(26 mtrs)
|
Source Squawka.com
With 60 successful passes and 90% accuracy,
Rodolph Austin only failed to reach his intended target 6 times showing
remarkable accuracy over all three pass types mentioned. Compare this return to
that of Luke Murphy who had a 96% passing success rate during the match but
this was from a return of only 23 successful passes; just over 33% of Rodolph
Austin’s total successful passes. During the game Leeds’ midfield four made a
total of 176 successful passes; Austin (60 – 34% midfield passes), Tonge (57 –
32.4% midfield passes), Bianchi (36 – 20.45% midfield passes) and Murphy (23 –
13% midfield passes). Using these figures it is easy to see where Leeds’
potential failings lay; certain members of their midfield need to ‘step up to
the plate’ passing wise and pass the ball more. Either that or a system needs
to be deployed that allows them to do so; to play their natural, individual
games. For example, there are views that the ‘4-4-2 Diamond’ system being
operated down LS11 way is forcing players to play outside their natural roles.
This system has had Luke Murphy playing as an attacking midfield player and
Tommasso Bianchi as a wider midfield player; both of these players are more of
your traditional central midfield player. It was encouraging to see that Coach
Hockaday changed the system to a more traditional 4-4-2 and introduced Nicky
Ajose as a half time substitute for Matt Smith – a change in system that
brought Leeds more success in the second 45 minutes.
Player
|
Chances Created (C*)
|
Completed Passes (C*)
|
Passing
Accuracy (%)
|
Shots
(C*)
|
Shot
Accuracy
(%)
|
Matt
Smith
|
0 (1)
|
9 (17)
|
61.5%
|
0 (2)
|
0%
|
Billy
Sharp
|
2 (3)
|
13 (17)
|
61%
|
0 (3)
|
33%
|
Dominic Poleon
|
0 (1)
|
1 (6)
|
75%
|
0 (1)
|
100%
|
Nicky Ajose
|
0 (3)
|
8 (33)
|
87%
|
1 (3)
|
50%
|
‘Passing Accuracy’ and ‘Shot
Accuracy’ – cumulative over season
C* - Cumulative totals
Source
Squawka.com
To be
brutally honest, there’s not really that much that can be said about the four
players who played ‘up top’ for Leeds in this game such was the inadequacy of
the overall performance. The midfield weren’t creative enough to provide the
starting strikers (Sharp and Smith) with anything resembling a shooting chance;
indeed the only shooting opportunity for any of the players above was Nicky
Ajose’s shot on 90 minutes that went high and wide of the target. Billy Sharp
was tidy in his passing with only 6 passes failing to reach their intended
targets and he also weighed in with 2 key passes leading to team mate chances.
Again
it is a case of a lamentably weak midfield performance from some players, one
that lacks both creative craft and width, which is one of the reasons why Leeds
spent a lot of the time on the back foot during the first half. This changed
somewhat in the second 45 as the system was changed to a more traditional
tactical line up which allowed Leeds’ midfield to finally get the ball down and
begin to work the opposition.
Saying
that, how long will Mr Cellino put up with ‘il
bruto e cattivo’ at the expense of ‘il buono’ down at Elland Road. There are
strong rumours that he will be following up recent signings and adding to his ‘legione stranieri’ with further signings
from the Italian market to include Mirko Antenucci (attacker from Ternera) and
Adryan (midfield playmaker from Cagliari via Flamengo) in a distinct bid to
bring more beauty to Leeds instead of ugliness.
All
Leeds fans are really hoping for is that there aren’t too many more crumbling
tombstone performances leading to an end-of-season Sad Hill Cemetary.
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