Leeds United vs. Bristol City: Three Talking Points from the 2–2 draw
After a flat first half performance, the Whites found their feet to earn a draw against the Robins at Elland Road.
Regardless of the poor start to the game yesterday, I believe this game will be the platform for the Heckingbottom era. The playoffs do look unlikely, but the way the team played in the final third of the game gave us all the hope that had faded in recent weeks and put some faith back in the team.
The game gave us many topics of discussion, but here are our three talking points.
1) 4–4–2
Which formation Heckingbottom will look to implement for the reminder of the season has been a hot topic of discussion over the last few weeks. Having previously used 4–1–4–1, 4–3–3 and 4–4–2 during his time at Barnsley, we all have wondered how the team will set up. Yesterday, Heckingbottom went with 4–4–2 a formation. Interestingly, this old school formation has returned to fashion and, in recent seasons, Championship sides have used it to god effect.
I felt that, overall, we did OK in 4–4–2, the issues in the first half which lead to the Bristol goals were the defensive issues that I will discuss later. When the team settled down, the natural width played a major factor in us taking a point. Hernandez and Sacko (when he came on) excelled on the wings and we finally saw how important Sacko can be playing within the right system.
The pace and direct approach of Sacko blended really well with the structured formation. However, it also allowed for Hernandez to play freely as he had players to fill the gaps when he went forward.
I saw enough to suggest that 4–4–2 could be effective for the reminder of the season, but I do wonder - with the creativity of Saiz back in the fold, will the formation be too rigid?
2) The defence needs to be a focus point
The fundamental reason for our playoff chasing season last season was the defence. Chris Wood carried the team in terms of goals but, without the solidness of the defence, we would have stayed in and around 15th place in the league.
At the beginning of this season we saw a turnaround and the quality in the more advanced attacking roles allowed the defence to look stronger than it was. Now the team have started to struggle in an attacking sense, the defensive fragility has become more apparent.
Since the new year, we conceded goals that could of been avoided if the defenders were more focused and disciplined. Both goals yesterday were results of defensive mistakes, we have quality at the back and on a individual basis we have seen some decent displays. However, its the understanding and trust between the defenders that I believe we are lacking. Every time Magnusson threw the ball into the box, the back 5 looked lost in transit and nobody seemed to know their roles in these situations.
Heckingbottom will need to find a way to blend the defence if we are to push on for the rest of the season.
3) Need to play for 90 minutes
Yesterday was the defection of a game of 2 halves. The first half was very poor and, barring the dismal display against Cardiff, it was the worse we have seen Leeds play this season. However, the last 30 minutes was close to the best we have seen of the Whites this season.
The slow start and inability to be aware during the first half of games is a real problem, it feels like the players lack the motivation to control the game in the early stages and need to be the team chasing rather than leading.
We should have won yesterday. Lasogga was millimetres away from giving us a well deserved three points, but when the team can perform to that standard and struggle to understand why we see them under-perform to such great lengths in the early stages of the game.
I often talk about balance being important for a team to succeed - well, Leeds need to find a way to balance their performance for 90 minutes.
Overall, I think we can take confidence from the display. The team showed what they can do and I think that was important, not only for us as fans to get behind Paul Heckingbottom and the team, but for the squad as well to realise the quality they possess and for them to know that going forward — into a fixture list of great importance — they can compete and more importantly win. MOT.
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