Deadbat
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Podcast here and report below:
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31 years ago, on Easter weekend, the Blades went to Elland Road in a crunch promotion contest and were absolutely battered 4-0 in a disastrous game where Leeds swarmed all over them and United fell apart.
Today, the Blades lost narrowly to an impressive Leeds side but in truth they were once again well beaten and actually the score line flattered the away side who were second best in every aspect of the game as their Yorkshire rivals sadly seem to be going in the opposite direction to the sorry looking Blades who are now edging ever so close to the inevitable relegation that has seemed likely since even before Xmas.
Caretaker manager Paul Heckingbottom, still looking for his first goal and point for the Blades, opted to keep faith with the same side that put in an improved showing at Chelsea last time out, in an attempt to find a result of some sort. So Baldock and Stevens remained as wide centre backs flanking Jagielka and McBurnie and McGoldrick continued up front. John Egan was a welcome recall to the bench after injury.
Marcelo Bielsa, the Leeds manager also kept faith with most of his charges with only one change and that was skipper Liam Cooper coming back in at the back for Struijk.
The game began with Leeds instantly on the attack. A ball forward and Baldock tripped Phillips just on the angle of the box. This gave Leeds a chance from a set play by Raphinha whipped it up and well over. The Blades tried to get up the other end but McBurnie dithered and Leeds broke. Lundstram picked up a booking for a cynical foul as he chopped down Roberts who was sprinting clear. Leeds were in the ascendancy but a rare attack saw a corner won but Norwood played it over everyone.
Leeds had the first effort on goal as a ball played by Jagielka to Lundstram saw the midfielder dithering and Phillips was able to rob him and his shot was saved by Ramsdale. The corner came over and was cleared initially but not very far and Dallas then teed up an effort as Baldock did not close him down and Ramsdale had to parry it away again. Appeals for a penalty came when the ball brushed Stevens on the hand but from point blank range was never going to be given.
On 12 minutes the opening goal came. McBurnie tried to foul his man unsuccessfully twice and then Stevens gave it away. This saw Leeds onto it and Dallas then fed Roberts who played in Raphinha who ran past Baldock easily and his low cross was tapped home by HARRISON at the far post. Lovely football and movement from the home side but static defending from the visitors.
The next phase saw Leeds dominate the ball and were on it when the Blades had it and quickly were able to win the ball and get all the loose stuff. They had overloads on both side and it seemed that Leeds were set to just overrun the away side. McGoldrick did have a chance and curled an effort not far wide in the first effort of the game for the Blades.
The flow of the game continued to be mostly one way. Alioski had a shot blocked by Baldock before Harrison then fed Alioski whose cross saw Raphinha gave an effort blocked. Leeds were rampant and United the other way could not get anything going.
On the half hour, it should have been another goal for Leeds as more swift movement saw Roberts thought and he wad caught extremely late by Baldock in a dangerous tackle. Harrison was in one on one but his effort lacked the necessary power or direction and Ramsdale did brilliantly to get a touch and send it wide. Baldock came off worse after the challenge and for a moment it seemed he would be the first Blades player to go off using the new concussion rule but the medical staff deemed him ok to come back on.
Phillips had blazed over from the resultant corner in between Baldock’s return before finally some relief for the Blades who won a corner but Fleck’s effort was the opposite of Norwood’s in wastefulness, this time not beating the first man. Although from the same move, United worked a decent spell and Stevens and McGoldrick combined but the latter’s cross was just away from McBurnie.
Leeds continued to dominate possession and Roberts then came inside Fleck easily and shot just wide before McGoldrick was the second Blade to be booked after inexplicably picking the ball up as he slipped to deny Leeds a chance to attack.
Baldock was still clearly struggling and he had to finally come off for Ampadu just before the 4 minutes of additional time to be played; mainly due to the two moments when Baldock went down. Inside the first minute, the Blades shocked the home side and were level.
Fleck came inside and fed McGoldrick who played in McBurnie’s whose driven cross shot was blocked from the Leeds defender and fell for OSBORN who turned it goalward with his unfamiliar right foot. Ailing kicked away but it seemed to have gone over the line and sure enough referee Graham Scott pointed to half way and then his stop watch and parity was restored.
The final moment saw Roberts heading at Ramsdale after good work from Bamford getting away from Jagielka. Half time came soon after this and the Blades had scored their first goal for 4 games and were in the contest.
The Blades began the second half on the attack and McGoldrick tried another shot but this was wide again and never threatening Meslier
Raphinha embarrassed Osborn but as the ball was cleared, Dallas fired over. Soon after Leeds were in front, Harrison was in on the left and his cross was right into the danger zone and JAGIELKA (OG) turned it into his own net. It was a wicked cross but the defender could not sort his body and feet out and Ramsdale could not react despite getting a hand on it. It was the third straight game the Blades had put the ball into their own net.
Leeds were back on the attack and Dallas curled an effort onto the top of the bar as Leeds continued to just look fitter, quicker and more skilled in the middle of the field. Leeds kept coming forward and at times seemed to have extra men on the field.
Lundstram’s sloppy ball again was intercepted but Alioski fizzed it over. The Blades slack work on and off the ball was a feature of the game as Leeds penned them in. Another give away, this time from Fleck saw Bamford in but Ampadu did well to get a foot in when it would have been easy to give away a penalty.
Another Lundstram give away saw Leeds break again as the midfielder walked back to try and regain possession! Fleck and Norwood’s impact on the game continued to be almost nothing as Leeds just won every ball. The Blades were struggling to hold back the attacks. A diagonal ball from Ayling saw Bamford in with no defender going near him and Ramsdale made a brave block to deny the goal. The keeper injured himself in making the save but was able to continue as the Blades cleared the corner as the game went over the hour mark.
Lundstram remarkably continued to think United were playing in white and another ball saw Leeds intercept and swarm all over the Blades again. A rare opportunity saw the ball over the top find McGoldrick but Fleck’s cross was deflected behind. The corner was shocking yet again and Leeds were on the attack once again but Ampadu was able to make the block after his initial error on the chance.
Good work from Fleck saw Bogle work an opportunity but his effort was blocked. Once again, another awful corner from the Blades, this time Norwood saw Leeds away again! This was Norwood’s last action as Burke came on for him. Rodrigo replaced Bamford for Leeds at the same time.
Ampadu tried to get forward and his run despite being fouled saw the ball drop to McBurnie but his chipped effort was a waste. Bogle then took an elbow and had to hobble off and the Blades incredibly lost two players to the new concussion rule. Brewster came on and Burke went to right wing back but not for long as he went back up front as Egan replaced McBurnie. Ampadu went to right wing back in a series of positional changes in quick succession.
The game was quite open now and after another awful set play from Lundstram, Leeds were away again as they realised, they could outrun United whenever they wanted. Dallas was on the end of it and pulled his shot just wide. Klich came on for Roberts but despite the Blades remaining in the game, Lundstram’s horror show continued with another wretched corner and Leeds were off to the races again.
Rodrigo was booked for a pull back on Fleck but surprise, surprise, it was wasted again but this time only fell to Brewster whose fizzing effort was impressive and only just went wide. The Blades then had another chance as Burke hit a low effort narrowly wide. At least they were keeping in the contest and had a bit of a go towards the end as the game entered 5 minutes stoppage time. Dallas and Raphinha nearly linked up and then a cross had to be cleared from Jagielka for a corner. Klich came on for Dallas but Leeds saw the rest of the time out easily to complete a deserved win that on chances and possession probably flattered the away side who at least stayed competitive in terms of the score line. For the Blades, they are now only weeks away from relegation and indeed it could be all over in 2 or 3 games. 24 losses out of 30 now means the Blades have lost as many games as any other team in Premier League history.
United – Once again well beaten by a better, fitter, quicker and more skilled team. Leeds are everything we are not. They can out run us, they work harder, they press and are full of athletes and some skilled players too. They have goals in them all over the team. They do not look great at the back and give chances up and did today but easily could have had 5 or 6 goals today and we were lucky to get away with 2-1. We stayed in the game and on reflection it looked close but it wasn’t in reality. Most of our inept performers continued to look inept. They look tired, completely drained of confidence and ability wise we are over matched every week. They are a bunch of Championship players and it seems more than ever the half a season to two third we saw last season was just a bunch of players who hit great from at this level. We look so bad it is untrue. We give it away all over the field and when the opposition have it, they run through us and pick us off all the time. It is a hard watch as we look so sluggish really. Teams open us up all over the field and we cannot live with the power, athleticism and running. We show glimpses here and there, mostly through McGoldrick. Osborn worked hard and Ampadu did ok when he came on but overall, we just look a side that feels it cannot compete at this level and sadly it cannot as the evidence shows.
Every week teams are having more possession by some margin, having far more efforts on and off goal. We are just resorting to fouling and grabbing when teams run past us. It is sad to watch the decline of this side. I felt we had a few spells in the game and showed some bits but overall, we maybe had 4 or 5 decent attacks to about 20 they had and similar with chances really. It was very one side and seemed like Leeds had more men most of the time. It is sad that 2 years ago we overtook this side and beat them to promotion but now they are miles off us in terms of where the clubs are going on and off the pitch. We have not built on beating them to promotion at all and off the pitch they have a better training ground, academy and infrastructure of scouting. It is worryingly how little we have done in any of these areas in 2 years. We still don’t have the pre fab building in place (why not – Wilder is right on this one) that should have been in place by now and still get changed out of a hut. That is one thing that has to be sorted and fast.
Mercifully we will finally be down and it could be as soon as a few games. I did not realise how soon it could be but if Newcastle win one and we lose one than that is nearly it. The most we can get is 38 I think and so a few results going the way of those 4th/5th bottom and it is done. I do not see us getting another point this season. I really don’t. We are just losing every week. It is quite painful now. Maybe Burnley at home or Brighton we might nick something but the players just look a bit disinterested. Heckingbottom says he cannot fault the effort but in the last two league games the opponents have ran more, competed more and looked hungrier from start to finish so it is more than ability- even though that is the biggest factor. Even when we got level, I just thought it delayed the inevitable and sure enough we were behind within 5 minutes of the restart.
We have had the talk around Blessing and maybe there is something in it. Seen the natural reaction from some saying ‘cheap unknown’ etc. Also seen some think it could be innovative. We do not know. Our rivals across the City made a few choices from the foreign market and one worker (Carvahal) and another was a disaster (Luhukay) and Barnsley have made some good choices. I probably would rather us take a punt on some young and innovative up and comer than some Champ re-tread. Those saying we need Champ experience need to remember Wilder had not had any and indeed had no League One experience too! Whoever takes over from Wilder needs to be given a chance but have a feeling he is on a hiding to nothing from some being the next man up from him and being the Prince’s choice. Seen lots on twitter still having Wilder avatars and campaigns against the Prince. Not sure this really helps now? Surely, we need to applaud Wilder and praise him for an amazing time but he has chosen to move on and not be part of us. We need to get behind the chairman and the next manager now. The season cannot end quick enough of course now and hopefully we can see some fans back in August and we can inject some life into things. It is sad that
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31 years ago, on Easter weekend, the Blades went to Elland Road in a crunch promotion contest and were absolutely battered 4-0 in a disastrous game where Leeds swarmed all over them and United fell apart.
Today, the Blades lost narrowly to an impressive Leeds side but in truth they were once again well beaten and actually the score line flattered the away side who were second best in every aspect of the game as their Yorkshire rivals sadly seem to be going in the opposite direction to the sorry looking Blades who are now edging ever so close to the inevitable relegation that has seemed likely since even before Xmas.
Caretaker manager Paul Heckingbottom, still looking for his first goal and point for the Blades, opted to keep faith with the same side that put in an improved showing at Chelsea last time out, in an attempt to find a result of some sort. So Baldock and Stevens remained as wide centre backs flanking Jagielka and McBurnie and McGoldrick continued up front. John Egan was a welcome recall to the bench after injury.
Marcelo Bielsa, the Leeds manager also kept faith with most of his charges with only one change and that was skipper Liam Cooper coming back in at the back for Struijk.
The game began with Leeds instantly on the attack. A ball forward and Baldock tripped Phillips just on the angle of the box. This gave Leeds a chance from a set play by Raphinha whipped it up and well over. The Blades tried to get up the other end but McBurnie dithered and Leeds broke. Lundstram picked up a booking for a cynical foul as he chopped down Roberts who was sprinting clear. Leeds were in the ascendancy but a rare attack saw a corner won but Norwood played it over everyone.
Leeds had the first effort on goal as a ball played by Jagielka to Lundstram saw the midfielder dithering and Phillips was able to rob him and his shot was saved by Ramsdale. The corner came over and was cleared initially but not very far and Dallas then teed up an effort as Baldock did not close him down and Ramsdale had to parry it away again. Appeals for a penalty came when the ball brushed Stevens on the hand but from point blank range was never going to be given.
On 12 minutes the opening goal came. McBurnie tried to foul his man unsuccessfully twice and then Stevens gave it away. This saw Leeds onto it and Dallas then fed Roberts who played in Raphinha who ran past Baldock easily and his low cross was tapped home by HARRISON at the far post. Lovely football and movement from the home side but static defending from the visitors.
The next phase saw Leeds dominate the ball and were on it when the Blades had it and quickly were able to win the ball and get all the loose stuff. They had overloads on both side and it seemed that Leeds were set to just overrun the away side. McGoldrick did have a chance and curled an effort not far wide in the first effort of the game for the Blades.
The flow of the game continued to be mostly one way. Alioski had a shot blocked by Baldock before Harrison then fed Alioski whose cross saw Raphinha gave an effort blocked. Leeds were rampant and United the other way could not get anything going.
On the half hour, it should have been another goal for Leeds as more swift movement saw Roberts thought and he wad caught extremely late by Baldock in a dangerous tackle. Harrison was in one on one but his effort lacked the necessary power or direction and Ramsdale did brilliantly to get a touch and send it wide. Baldock came off worse after the challenge and for a moment it seemed he would be the first Blades player to go off using the new concussion rule but the medical staff deemed him ok to come back on.
Phillips had blazed over from the resultant corner in between Baldock’s return before finally some relief for the Blades who won a corner but Fleck’s effort was the opposite of Norwood’s in wastefulness, this time not beating the first man. Although from the same move, United worked a decent spell and Stevens and McGoldrick combined but the latter’s cross was just away from McBurnie.
Leeds continued to dominate possession and Roberts then came inside Fleck easily and shot just wide before McGoldrick was the second Blade to be booked after inexplicably picking the ball up as he slipped to deny Leeds a chance to attack.
Baldock was still clearly struggling and he had to finally come off for Ampadu just before the 4 minutes of additional time to be played; mainly due to the two moments when Baldock went down. Inside the first minute, the Blades shocked the home side and were level.
Fleck came inside and fed McGoldrick who played in McBurnie’s whose driven cross shot was blocked from the Leeds defender and fell for OSBORN who turned it goalward with his unfamiliar right foot. Ailing kicked away but it seemed to have gone over the line and sure enough referee Graham Scott pointed to half way and then his stop watch and parity was restored.
The final moment saw Roberts heading at Ramsdale after good work from Bamford getting away from Jagielka. Half time came soon after this and the Blades had scored their first goal for 4 games and were in the contest.
The Blades began the second half on the attack and McGoldrick tried another shot but this was wide again and never threatening Meslier
Raphinha embarrassed Osborn but as the ball was cleared, Dallas fired over. Soon after Leeds were in front, Harrison was in on the left and his cross was right into the danger zone and JAGIELKA (OG) turned it into his own net. It was a wicked cross but the defender could not sort his body and feet out and Ramsdale could not react despite getting a hand on it. It was the third straight game the Blades had put the ball into their own net.
Leeds were back on the attack and Dallas curled an effort onto the top of the bar as Leeds continued to just look fitter, quicker and more skilled in the middle of the field. Leeds kept coming forward and at times seemed to have extra men on the field.
Lundstram’s sloppy ball again was intercepted but Alioski fizzed it over. The Blades slack work on and off the ball was a feature of the game as Leeds penned them in. Another give away, this time from Fleck saw Bamford in but Ampadu did well to get a foot in when it would have been easy to give away a penalty.
Another Lundstram give away saw Leeds break again as the midfielder walked back to try and regain possession! Fleck and Norwood’s impact on the game continued to be almost nothing as Leeds just won every ball. The Blades were struggling to hold back the attacks. A diagonal ball from Ayling saw Bamford in with no defender going near him and Ramsdale made a brave block to deny the goal. The keeper injured himself in making the save but was able to continue as the Blades cleared the corner as the game went over the hour mark.
Lundstram remarkably continued to think United were playing in white and another ball saw Leeds intercept and swarm all over the Blades again. A rare opportunity saw the ball over the top find McGoldrick but Fleck’s cross was deflected behind. The corner was shocking yet again and Leeds were on the attack once again but Ampadu was able to make the block after his initial error on the chance.
Good work from Fleck saw Bogle work an opportunity but his effort was blocked. Once again, another awful corner from the Blades, this time Norwood saw Leeds away again! This was Norwood’s last action as Burke came on for him. Rodrigo replaced Bamford for Leeds at the same time.
Ampadu tried to get forward and his run despite being fouled saw the ball drop to McBurnie but his chipped effort was a waste. Bogle then took an elbow and had to hobble off and the Blades incredibly lost two players to the new concussion rule. Brewster came on and Burke went to right wing back but not for long as he went back up front as Egan replaced McBurnie. Ampadu went to right wing back in a series of positional changes in quick succession.
The game was quite open now and after another awful set play from Lundstram, Leeds were away again as they realised, they could outrun United whenever they wanted. Dallas was on the end of it and pulled his shot just wide. Klich came on for Roberts but despite the Blades remaining in the game, Lundstram’s horror show continued with another wretched corner and Leeds were off to the races again.
Rodrigo was booked for a pull back on Fleck but surprise, surprise, it was wasted again but this time only fell to Brewster whose fizzing effort was impressive and only just went wide. The Blades then had another chance as Burke hit a low effort narrowly wide. At least they were keeping in the contest and had a bit of a go towards the end as the game entered 5 minutes stoppage time. Dallas and Raphinha nearly linked up and then a cross had to be cleared from Jagielka for a corner. Klich came on for Dallas but Leeds saw the rest of the time out easily to complete a deserved win that on chances and possession probably flattered the away side who at least stayed competitive in terms of the score line. For the Blades, they are now only weeks away from relegation and indeed it could be all over in 2 or 3 games. 24 losses out of 30 now means the Blades have lost as many games as any other team in Premier League history.
United – Once again well beaten by a better, fitter, quicker and more skilled team. Leeds are everything we are not. They can out run us, they work harder, they press and are full of athletes and some skilled players too. They have goals in them all over the team. They do not look great at the back and give chances up and did today but easily could have had 5 or 6 goals today and we were lucky to get away with 2-1. We stayed in the game and on reflection it looked close but it wasn’t in reality. Most of our inept performers continued to look inept. They look tired, completely drained of confidence and ability wise we are over matched every week. They are a bunch of Championship players and it seems more than ever the half a season to two third we saw last season was just a bunch of players who hit great from at this level. We look so bad it is untrue. We give it away all over the field and when the opposition have it, they run through us and pick us off all the time. It is a hard watch as we look so sluggish really. Teams open us up all over the field and we cannot live with the power, athleticism and running. We show glimpses here and there, mostly through McGoldrick. Osborn worked hard and Ampadu did ok when he came on but overall, we just look a side that feels it cannot compete at this level and sadly it cannot as the evidence shows.
Every week teams are having more possession by some margin, having far more efforts on and off goal. We are just resorting to fouling and grabbing when teams run past us. It is sad to watch the decline of this side. I felt we had a few spells in the game and showed some bits but overall, we maybe had 4 or 5 decent attacks to about 20 they had and similar with chances really. It was very one side and seemed like Leeds had more men most of the time. It is sad that 2 years ago we overtook this side and beat them to promotion but now they are miles off us in terms of where the clubs are going on and off the pitch. We have not built on beating them to promotion at all and off the pitch they have a better training ground, academy and infrastructure of scouting. It is worryingly how little we have done in any of these areas in 2 years. We still don’t have the pre fab building in place (why not – Wilder is right on this one) that should have been in place by now and still get changed out of a hut. That is one thing that has to be sorted and fast.
Mercifully we will finally be down and it could be as soon as a few games. I did not realise how soon it could be but if Newcastle win one and we lose one than that is nearly it. The most we can get is 38 I think and so a few results going the way of those 4th/5th bottom and it is done. I do not see us getting another point this season. I really don’t. We are just losing every week. It is quite painful now. Maybe Burnley at home or Brighton we might nick something but the players just look a bit disinterested. Heckingbottom says he cannot fault the effort but in the last two league games the opponents have ran more, competed more and looked hungrier from start to finish so it is more than ability- even though that is the biggest factor. Even when we got level, I just thought it delayed the inevitable and sure enough we were behind within 5 minutes of the restart.
We have had the talk around Blessing and maybe there is something in it. Seen the natural reaction from some saying ‘cheap unknown’ etc. Also seen some think it could be innovative. We do not know. Our rivals across the City made a few choices from the foreign market and one worker (Carvahal) and another was a disaster (Luhukay) and Barnsley have made some good choices. I probably would rather us take a punt on some young and innovative up and comer than some Champ re-tread. Those saying we need Champ experience need to remember Wilder had not had any and indeed had no League One experience too! Whoever takes over from Wilder needs to be given a chance but have a feeling he is on a hiding to nothing from some being the next man up from him and being the Prince’s choice. Seen lots on twitter still having Wilder avatars and campaigns against the Prince. Not sure this really helps now? Surely, we need to applaud Wilder and praise him for an amazing time but he has chosen to move on and not be part of us. We need to get behind the chairman and the next manager now. The season cannot end quick enough of course now and hopefully we can see some fans back in August and we can inject some life into things. It is sad that