Leeds United’s lack of urgency in Thursday night’s 1-0 loss to West Bromwich Albion has drawn criticism from Jon Newsome.
Following their loss against Preston North End on Boxing Day, Leeds lost two games in a row for the first time this season as the top three teams began to distance themselves from the Whites.
Leeds had already suffered their sixth away defeat of the season, many of which had come against sides content to sit back and defend deep. It was a familiar old story for Leeds.
Some managers have praised Leeds as the best counter-attacking team in the division this season, but when they aren’t allowed to, there isn’t much in the way of inventiveness.
Speaking on BBC Radio Leeds, Newsome asserts that Leeds’ lack of “urgency” in their upcoming play has made them predictable under Daniel Farke.
Leeds has been resolved.
“We have no urgency in our forward play,” he declared. We’ll keep the ball if we get it at the back and feel comfortable with it, but I see it as an opportunity to attack the opposing defense.
“As long as you don’t harm me or jeopardize my goal, you are free to have the ball on the boundary of your area or on the halfway line all afternoon and evening.
“They have a back five or a back four, midfielders sat in there, they know what we want to do, get the ball wide and have our wide men come at them,” the player said. “When we do then try and start opening teams up.”
It was nearly hard for anyone to create anything because it was too late—way too late—because all they did all night was double up on the wide players. Simply put, I believe that we are getting a little too predictable.
Leeds United vs. West Bromwich Albion – Sky Bet Championship Image courtesy of David Rogers/Getty Images
If Farke can’t get Leeds to start breaking through strong defenses, Leeds’ chances of earning automatic promotion may be eliminated as early as February.
Teams have begun to figure out exactly how to play Leeds, but the solutions are just lacking, which has resulted in a lot of bad teams like Stoke City, Preston North End, and Birmingham City.
David Brooks of Bournemouth is being linked to Leeds this week; if anything is going to change in January, that kind of number 10 is going to be required.
