Attacking Play
The early goal was crucial, you can bet your life that without it we would have seen WBA do what they did against us at The Hawthorns, sit deep, look for breaks.
The early goal meant they couldn't and what followed showed exactly why no Championship side has had to cope with such negativity from their opponents.
WBA were forced to try and compete, couldn't sit back, gaps opened up and we swept through them.
The frustration of games gone by was gone for our players, no passing for the sake of it, no crosses out of frustration (14 vs WBA 28 vs QPR, 8 less crosses vs WBA then our season average).
We passed with purpose, sometimes switching play from left to right where Ali and Harrison had great joy, sometimes it was little triangles between Bamford, Klich and Roberts.
It was a coming of age performance imo for Tyler Roberts and Jack Harrison. Harrison carried the ball at pace on numerous occasions, dragging WBA back, exploiting space, linking with his teammates. Roberts put in the best performance by a Leeds number 10 all season, his skill and dribbling caused WBA no end of problems, the touch to put Bamford in for his 1st and the run for his 2nd was top draw and something we have lacked since Samu Saiz left.
Hernandez started us on the way with a strike of quality, his intelligence is a class apart and is why I'd never criticise his passing, yes he does misplace a few but a lot of the time its because either his teammates havent seen it or Pablo is trying to do the difficult pass to help us score, its easy to take the easy route, Pablo doesnt, that should be admired.
In midfield Matty Klich was awesome again, the calmest man on the field, 88% pass completion for Klich in a frantic game. He didn't get an assist but he was crucial for two of the goals in the build up, he is so calm and composed but equally very hard working.
Finally Patrick Bamford, who knew this well spoken young man was as strong as an ox, he held off the WBA cb for his 1st for what seemed an eternity, he swatted that WBA defender aside for his 2nd, and in the buildup for the 4th he held his ground on the line and calmly did a drag back and flick to take a few WBA players out of the game, superb. 4 shots, 2 goals, is he finally getting match fit?
But what WBA imo struggled with most of all was our flexibility, it was amazing at times and actually raised another question, burnout, maybe its mental not physical? But anyway.
Our flexibility was superb and is a defenders nightmare, if at the start of the game you have a man to mark, how do you mark them if they keep sodding off to another area of the pitch out of your comfort zone?
Patrick Bamford and Tyler Roberts were doing it all game, Paddy clearly likes to get involved in the build up more then Roofe, but that only works if someone else takes his striking role, Roberts did. WBA cbs didnt know whether to follow Bamford or pass him on and pick up Roberts. If they did follow that left space, if they didnt then we had an overload in cm.
Wasnt just those 2.
At times we had Bamford right wing, Hernandez 10, Roberts up top, or we even had Bamford 10, Hernandez cm, Roberts right side and Klich up top, Ali appeared up front at times, it must have been a nightmare for WBA.
It showed why we need the early goal, why teams refuse to come out against us.
But i think if that was a turning point for some of our players, Bamford, Roberts, Harrison, then we will be able to break teams down better even if they sit back.
Bamford's strength and movement will create space, Roberts willingness to drive at teams through the middle of the pitch and Harrisons seeming new found confidence with the ball at his feet are all weapons we havent really had this season.
With Jack Clarke back in full training today and of course Izzy Brown and Kemar Roofe to return soonish i think we have the attacking players to adapt to any challenge now.
ALAW