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Boro vs Leeds 1-1 (Wing)


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With the result we now drop to 5th. Our home form and 12 draws has made a huge impact and we will be fighting for the play offs. What’s worse for me is the fact we could be in the same postion watching attacking football with if we had converted four wins from the twelve draws and lost eight..

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Are people really blaming the added time for dropping two points? It was all Pulis. That said I have no idea how the ref found 12 minutes. The game was stopped for 6 minutes I think. Surely there wasn’t going to be 5-6 minutes of normal stoppage time. Anyhow it was all our own doing.

 

behave yourself FFS....

 

Do you really think it was a good decision by our manager to let Leeds relentlessly attack us throughout the entire second half including the long injury time? While watching the game could you honestly say you thought it was a good decision to play the remaining 30+ minutes with 5 defenders, 3 defensive midfielders, 1 central midfielder and 1 striker? Did you really think it was a good decision to put the limited Clayton on and have him play in front of the defense while a quicker VLP might actually have given us a chance to press a bit higher and relieve the pressure a bit while making Leeds keep a man or two back. Tony did what he does and it cost us because his tactics simply let Leeds attack us. He can scream as much on the sidelines to try and get us forward but when he puts 8 defensive players on the pitch what does he expect?

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With the result we now drop to 5th. Our home form and 12 draws has made a huge impact and we will be fighting for the play offs. What’s worse for me is the fact we could be in the same postion watching attacking football with if we had converted four wins from the twelve draws and lost eight..

 

I just wish to add. I you offered me a point before the game I would have took it. Overall the team played a Pulis formation but did well and battled hard. Our postion is not a reflection on yesterday’s game but the season so far.

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We've taken four points from 2 of the best teams in this league and people are moaning. Incredible.

 

Which in itself is obviously very good and I would certainly have taken that a week ago. So in that regards we have done well however I’m still very bitter about throwing away two points yesterday by letting them do what they wanted for so long.

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We have to take each game one at a time and many members have indicated that and I include myself a point against Leeds would be seen as a decent result.

 

In a way would we be as angry if it had been 0-0? All we would complain about was missed chances and certainly Leeds were very culpable as well.

 

Watching the Leeds goal it was mentioned Ayala should have concentrated more on the ball instead of getting involved with his man but perhaps this is being too picky.

 

The issue is far too many drawn games and like a few I think auto spot is just a bit too far now but we need to ensure our top 6 spot by winning games instead of drawing them. A point against Sheffield United at the moment on paper looks a good result but Derby and Bristol are right on our backsides and so the importance of our "game in hand" is increased as we have to play Bristol City.

 

It's great that we have this record (which will stop eventually) when scoring first we do not lose but we need to start scoring more than one solitary goal especially at home as there lays the problem.

 

We know Leeds never give up but the same can be said about as results recently show that Derby and Bristol fancy their chances in the lottery come end of season. We have to win our games at home.

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Wednesday is huge.... if we can beat Sheff Utd then 7 from 9 against three of the top six sides starts to look like a brilliant week.

 

Lose and slip out the play-offs though, and suddenly the pressure is on to start beating teams and get that play-off spot back... and we don't do great when the pressure is on to win.

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I don't necessarily think our tactics were that wrong. 1-0 lead does not invite for "offensive" changes in the 70th minute against a Leeds side desperate for a goal.

 

Assambalonga makes sense given his pace. Hugill can maybe hold up the ball, but I'd rather have someone who has an off-chance scoring a goal from an individual effort. Clayton is far better defensively than Saville. And dare I say Besic can tackle from time to time as well (or at least stumble into someone).

 

Personally, I would've been ***ed seeing Downing and VLP on against a Leeds side destined to dominate the last 20 minutes regardless of two players who can presumably hold onto the ball.

 

Sure, you can defend a lead by holding onto the ball, play possession. But that rarely works against a side with better players at that game. We have conceded the fewest goals in the league by some margin, and our goalscoring is atrocious at best. Why would we try to play to our weakness rather than our strength?

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Honestly, for those thinking tat automatic promotion was a possibility then yesterday's draw is a poor one. If you want to go up in the auto then you have to beat the teams around you, especially at home. And especially when those teams are ahead of you.

 

Leeds was always going to be one of the teams that absolutely fit pulis' tactics. They play proper football and attack in numbers so he can get away with playing shed loads of defensive players and hoping to nick a 1-0.

 

However, in hindsight, even in these games the least you should accept is 2 attack minded players. 1 who can battle for the ball from defensive clearances and one who will take the ball from your own half with a bit of pace and guile. Thus the first 48 minutes worked well. Hugill and wing.

 

From there on it was decided that actually only 1 attack minded player was needed. Just the hoof ball option. While we have VLP on the bench, tav somewhere in the country I'd guess, and even downing available to relieve the pressure by carrying the ball and winning free kicks etc. when we get the ball, we instead choose to throw on more defensive players like Clayton. Now this isn't a go at Clayton but the decision to have a training ground game of attack vs defense.

 

What I don't get even more is that some people seem to think this is the right thing to do.

 

We had 31% possession. It's understandable that Leeds fans think they should have won. Our fans keep mentioning our missed opportunities. Dis you see theirs? And generally ours fell to defensive players (obviously) while theirs fell to attackers.

 

Playoffs I still think will be beyond us but there is still hope. The downside if we get there is that it isn't a lottery, it's having to beat two of the top 6 teams in the league. And with these tactics I doubt we have any chance.

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I don't necessarily think our tactics were that wrong. 1-0 lead does not invite for "offensive" changes in the 70th minute against a Leeds side desperate for a goal.

 

Assambalonga makes sense given his pace. Hugill can maybe hold up the ball, but I'd rather have someone who has an off-chance scoring a goal from an individual effort. Clayton is far better defensively than Saville. And dare I say Besic can tackle from time to time as well (or at least stumble into someone).

 

Personally, I would've been *** seeing Downing and VLP on against a Leeds side destined to dominate the last 20 minutes regardless of two players who can presumably hold onto the ball.

 

Sure, you can defend a lead by holding onto the ball, play possession. But that rarely works against a side with better players at that game. We have conceded the fewest goals in the league by some margin, and our goalscoring is atrocious at best. Why would we try to play to our weakness rather than our strength?

 

Because we were playing to their strengths.

 

Proof is in the pudding. They scored.

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I don't necessarily think our tactics were that wrong. 1-0 lead does not invite for "offensive" changes in the 70th minute against a Leeds side desperate for a goal.

 

Assambalonga makes sense given his pace. Hugill can maybe hold up the ball, but I'd rather have someone who has an off-chance scoring a goal from an individual effort. Clayton is far better defensively than Saville. And dare I say Besic can tackle from time to time as well (or at least stumble into someone).

 

Personally, I would've been *** seeing Downing and VLP on against a Leeds side destined to dominate the last 20 minutes regardless of two players who can presumably hold onto the ball.

 

Sure, you can defend a lead by holding onto the ball, play possession. But that rarely works against a side with better players at that game. We have conceded the fewest goals in the league by some margin, and our goalscoring is atrocious at best. Why would we try to play to our weakness rather than our strength?

 

I think you are missing the point that many of us have tried to make on here.

 

Surely there could have been some middle ground between wanting us to go for it at 1-0 and not wanting 10 men behind the ball and defending on the edge of our box.

 

Before we scored I think we handled Leeds pretty well defensively, we weren't sat too deep and pretty much kept them at arms length. After we scored we just invited wave after wave of attack, they created better chances and could have had a couple of goals.

 

The tactics obviously didn't work unless the plan at 1-0 was to get a draw?

 

I don't actually mind defending a lead but you have to give the opposition something to think about at the other end. The tactics we employed were something you see when a team take the lead with 5-10 minutes to go not 43 minutes of backs to the wall defending.

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We've taken four points from 2 of the best teams in this league and people are moaning. Incredible.

 

Some of us like to discuss other things as well as how many points we've got.

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I don't necessarily think our tactics were that wrong. 1-0 lead does not invite for "offensive" changes in the 70th minute against a Leeds side desperate for a goal.

 

Assambalonga makes sense given his pace. Hugill can maybe hold up the ball, but I'd rather have someone who has an off-chance scoring a goal from an individual effort. Clayton is far better defensively than Saville. And dare I say Besic can tackle from time to time as well (or at least stumble into someone).

 

Personally, I would've been *** seeing Downing and VLP on against a Leeds side destined to dominate the last 20 minutes regardless of two players who can presumably hold onto the ball.

 

Sure, you can defend a lead by holding onto the ball, play possession. But that rarely works against a side with better players at that game. We have conceded the fewest goals in the league by some margin, and our goalscoring is atrocious at best. Why would we try to play to our weakness rather than our strength?

 

I think you are missing the point that many of us have tried to make on here.

 

Surely there could have been some middle ground between wanting us to go for it at 1-0 and not wanting 10 men behind the ball and defending on the edge of our box.

 

Before we scored I think we handled Leeds pretty well defensively, we weren't sat too deep and pretty much kept them at arms length. After we scored we just invited wave after wave of attack, they created better chances and could have had a couple of goals.

 

The tactics obviously didn't work unless the plan at 1-0 was to get a draw?

 

I don't actually mind defending a lead but you have to give the opposition something to think about at the other end. The tactics we employed were something you see when a team take the lead with 5-10 minutes to go not 43 minutes of backs to the wall defending.

 

It went to crap because Wing got injured and we dont have an another nr 10 in our squad, Besic came in but took a way to deep positon, if that was Pulis doing or if it was somehingelse I dont know, but you could clearly see Pulis pointing and shouting around minute 65 or 70 that he thought we where to deep and wanted our players to push up. That dident happen, can be many reasons for that, tireness and Leeds being a very good team being two....

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I don't necessarily think our tactics were that wrong. 1-0 lead does not invite for "offensive" changes in the 70th minute against a Leeds side desperate for a goal.

 

Assambalonga makes sense given his pace. Hugill can maybe hold up the ball, but I'd rather have someone who has an off-chance scoring a goal from an individual effort. Clayton is far better defensively than Saville. And dare I say Besic can tackle from time to time as well (or at least stumble into someone).

 

Personally, I would've been *** seeing Downing and VLP on against a Leeds side destined to dominate the last 20 minutes regardless of two players who can presumably hold onto the ball.

 

Sure, you can defend a lead by holding onto the ball, play possession. But that rarely works against a side with better players at that game. We have conceded the fewest goals in the league by some margin, and our goalscoring is atrocious at best. Why would we try to play to our weakness rather than our strength?

 

Because we were playing to their strengths.

 

Proof is in the pudding. They scored.

 

Striking proof that is. 

 

https://footystats.org/clubs/england/leeds-united-fc

 

Leeds score most goals second half. 29 % of their goals in min 81-90 according to that site. They have a way of seeing the games out, put pressure. We are - usually - somewhat decent at defending against that pressure. 

 

I sincerely doubt that putting on two offensive players with little to no defensive ability about them would have turned the game in our favour. We (and Pulis (and Karanka)) are usually good at grinding out leads.

 

EDIT: @Duvel And yes, I know having a player or two being able to take the ball on, get a freekick, and then waste time is a might fine tactic as well. I am saying that I really doubt that we have any players who could fill that roll post 70 minute given the entire team is likely starting to get tired.

 

Putting on Downing will not relieve any pressure. He can't dribble that well anymore, no pace, and he can't defend for ***. I say that even though some people on here suggested putting Downing on left back in place of Friend. Having ball possession takes energy, too. The movement off ball can be more tiring than sitting deep, and moving side to side in whatever midfield constellation was in place. In my uneducated and arm-chair specialist opinion, we have more chance of scoring - in that scenario (post 70th minute) - hoofing the ball to Britt and hope for the best.

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