The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Monday 7th August) Summerville's late late show
Good Morning. It's Monday 7th August, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Summerville's late late show
An injury time strike, deep into stoppage time, spared Leeds blushes as they came from two-nil down to came a point, on the opening day of the 23-24 Championship season.
With Bamford and Rutter injured, Willy Gnonto led the line, with Luis Sinisterra tucked in behind him; it wasn't an ideal setup, but at least it meant Leeds were able to utilize the services of Dan James and Crysencio Summerville in wide positions.
Leeds looked dangerous from kick off. Gnonto's close ball control, and turn of pace caused the Cardiff defence all kinds of problems, whilst as we know, Sinisterra can strike the ball from anywhere, but Cardiff were up to the task. They defended resolutely, thwarting everything Leeds threw at them in the opening half.
The Bluebirds opened the scoring midway through the first half. O'Dowda was given acres of space down his left flank (Leeds right)with Ayling nowhere to be seen. He tee'd up Bowler from 12 yards out, but his initial effort was blocked by Ampadu. The rebound fell nicely back to him; this time, even though surrounded by five defenders, stabbed the ball past Meslier.
Bowler turned contributor for Cardiff's second, five minutes before half time. He exploited Leeds weakness down his right (Leeds left), easing his way past a disappointing Leo Hjelde, before cutting the ball back to Arron Ramsey. The Welsh International spun, turned and fire an effort, straight into the shins of Liam Cooper. The ball spun towards the far post, where Iké Ugbo reacted quickest to stab the ball home, silencing the Elland Road crowd.
Daniel Farke's half time talk worked wonders, as Leeds reduced the deficit just four minutes into the second half. Liam Cooper flung himself at Summerville's out-swinging corner, beating the keeper for pace, but landed awkwardly, and was stretchered from the ground soon after.
Leeds continued to ask all the questions, but had to wait until the fifth minute of injury time for a reply. Sinisterra's speculative effort was blocked, but Summerville's instinctive strike ensured the spoils were shared.
It's a scandal that we didn't win
As a club, Leeds have never been blessed with a lot of luck. It's not the first and it certainly won't be the last time that they controlled proceedings, but get little in return. The Bluebirds had two efforts on goal, and scored them both, whilst Leeds enjoyed 72% possession, and dominated all the other stats that mattered, apart from the glaringly obvious one. The game was that one-sided that the heat map around the Cardiff City's defence was reminiscent of the recent forest fires around Europe.
After the game, Daniel Farke described the Leeds defending as sloppy (as far as the Cardiff goals were concerned) but claimed with Leeds dominance, it was 'a scandal that we (Leeds) didn't win.
Against a really compact and good defensive side we created an unbelievable amount of set pieces and a lot of shooting positions. It was difficult because we didn't have our normal strikers available – not (Patrick) Bamford, not (Georginio) Rutter, not (Mateo) Joseph (all injured) – and we had pretty small players on the pitch, we couldn't work with high crosses.
They found many, many good situations to be a threat on the Cardiff goal. The problem was our defensive behaviour before the goals we conceded was a bit too sloppy. Then to turn the game after a team digs even a bit more in and drops deeper was difficult.
Even the (goal which made it) 1-2 was a picture of our situation. We scored an early goal in the second half and had the momentum but our skipper, Liam Cooper, injured himself and we had to play the next five minutes under-manned (until Charlie Cresswell came on).
The team we had (then) was more or less just a bit stronger than a youth side but to keep going, stay cool and equalise in he last minute of added time was special and really good for the confidence. When you judge just from statistics it's a scandal that we didn't win. We had more than 70 per cent possession, they had two shots on target, two goals, we had 25 shots (in total), we had 10 to no corners.
In the second half just one team was chasing the game and playing. It looked a bit like a powerplay (where ice hockey teams have a man advantage) at times. "But sadly we missed two many good situations and they were also unbelievably effective. With so many hits in the neck and so many missed opportunities to equalise, it was a pretty important point not just for the table but also for the confidence, for the spirit, for the unity, for the mentality.
Did Farke take sly dig at ER hierarchy
Nobody can blame Daniel Farke if he's getting a little tetchy regarding the transfer situation at Elland Road! The Leeds gaffer has done well since taking the reigns almost five weeks ago, but it doesn't take a genius to work out where Leeds frailties lie!
Over half the Leeds participants that played a part yesterday, were not deemed good enough only seven weeks ago, and even though they have dropped a division, the Championship can be very unforgiving, if you're not properly prepared.
During his post match interview, Farke labelled the strength of his side as being just 'a bit stronger than a youth side' following Cooper being stretchered off. This is a powerful statement to make out loud, during your first post interview of the season, and perhaps indicates that the big German wants more support than he is being given as far as transfers go.
It's only week one of the season, and we have already seen injuries to the usual suspects Bamford, Cooper and Firpo. They only had 16 players train last week, and with the skipper now out of action for a sustained amount of time, and Meslier expecting to depart, they may not have enough players for their substitute bench soon.