Minority Report v Leeds United (a)

Minority Report begins once more with the usual caveat, watching via TV means that I am very uncertain about my analysis, especially away from the ball. I will do my best, but please expect mistakes.


The starting line-up was like entering a time warp and going back 6 months to the reign of Daniel Stendel. I am starting to lose confidence in my assertions of formation after recent embarrassments, but I am confident in saying that we played a 4-3-3 formation, the type that does not turn into 4-5-1 when the ball is lost. Leeds turned their team into a 3-4-3 in response. If this formation is to work, the front 3 must stop the Leeds back 3 from playing the ball out of defence on the ground, so that we force their keeper to kick long. That would mean that our central defenders have a good chance of winning the ball back, especially so as another tall player, Aapo Halme, was brought into our midfield, presumably for that very purpose. It did not work. If one of the front 3 goes to put pressure on the keeper, then he cannot be marking one of their back 3. Putting pressure on the keeper converts their system into 4 against 3, and Leeds found it far too easy to play through our isolated front 3 press.


It was soon clear that Leeds have more pace than we do, especially up front, and if you give their midfield players the room to pick out passes, they will turn our back 4 and hit balls through us to their runners. Not that we played particularly poorly, at the back, but the usual problems resurfaced. I have pointed out that Jordan Williams is not a left back over and over again in these pieces recently. He is a decent right back, but there are at least two left footed full backs ahead of him for the left back slot. A left footed player will have his best foot to the outside. He will be better balanced to defend on his left side. It is not Williams’ fault that his left foot is not as good as his right, but Struber wants Ludewig on the right side of our defence because he believes he is better going forward on our right side than Williams is. I do not agree, for all the sway that my opinion holds with anyone.


The fact is that neither full back was great that first half, which gives the two overworked centre-backs an even bigger workload. There will be those on the BBS who will turn on the usual suspects. They will seek to blame Mads Andersen for the Leeds goal, because he did not put the ball out of play when Leeds scored. Let me explain why I do not agree. The pass through to Bamford was delivered accurately because the passer had too much space and too much time. Given Bamford’s pace, Andersen did as well as he could, and the ball stayed in play by a fraction of an inch to give Bamford the chance to cross. There will be those who will say that Sollbauer could do nothing with the cross. That he was retreating towards his own goal and was powerless to do other than put it in his own net. I respectfully disagree. He should have been able to put the ball wide from there, even allowing for the pressure he was under and the pace on the cross. Did that moment affect the game? I’ll say it did!


At half-time, there was no longer any point to the system that we started with, and in particular, there was no point in keeping Aapo Halme on the field, not as a defensive mid-field player anyway. We may as well lose by 7, as go down meekly to an own goal. Given Cauley Woodrow’s no show again, personally, I would have been tempted to move Halme to the centre forward position in order to bring Thomas on, but it was Halme who made way.


Barnsley were far more aggressive in the second period, although the system changed only slightly. Styles had carried the ball well in the first half, but now he was joined by another ball carrier in Thomas. If only Thomas could have passed better, we might have stood a chance of getting Chaplin in behind them. The team played higher up the field, giving Leeds more room behind us. It was risky given their pace, but what had we to lose. Leeds aided and abetted us in our attempts to control that second half by bring their players deeper, and trying to hit us on the break. As a contest, from a Barnsley point of view, it was far more interesting, and there is no doubt that we did create a number of half chances. Nevertheless, although they played the second half mainly without the ball, Leeds also created chances, and replays suggest that they should have been awarded a late penalty. For the closing few minutes, Mads Andersen was asked to play centre forward. We needed to get the ball forward quickly, and for that, we needed some height. It is a shame that it did not occur to our Coach 45 minutes earlier, when Halme was still on the field.


The Leeds players are far better than that second period would suggest. They have a coach who prefers to defend deep and hold on to what you have. If I were a Leeds fan, it would drive me up the wall, but frankly being a Barnsley fan has a much bigger down sides than that.


In what is becoming a regular feature, let us look at players who were asked to play out of position in order for us to play the Struber way. Well, once more Jordan Williams picked the short straw to play left back. People tell me that Woodrow has always played deeper in order to find space. Well I do not know how he scored all those goals if that is the case. Once again, he never showed up today, and once again, he was hardly in the opposition penalty box. He looks a player worth a fraction of the fee that he was valued at earlier this season, when he scored the majority of his goals. Similarly, Jacob Brown looks lost when not operating as the wide midfield player in a 4-4-2. He got free on the right just once in that second half, and he hit a bending cross almost into the path of Cauley Woodrow, but for a last ditch interception by a covering defender. In that moment, he accomplished more than he has done in all the other games this month. As a wide player he creates chances for others. Playing narrower, he creates little and rarely gets into goal scoring positions. Let us be honest here. We are a far less effective force going forward now, and the main problem is that we are not giving ourselves a chance because the strategy being used is not making best use of available playing resources. Frankly, I do not know what would have happened had we equalised, because I cannot believe that Bielsa would have been content to play deep and wind the clock down, but it would have been nice to see.


Minority Report player of the match


I thought that Styles carried the ball extremely well throughout, and I would have liked to see him play out the whole game out on the left side of midfield, because moving him to left back took him away from the centre of things. Mads Andersen was faultless throughout (yes I know about the goal). His reading of the game, his pace, his ball winning were great to watch. In my Minority view, Andersen is our next multi-million pound sale to a Premier League team.


However the Minority Report MotM award goes to Callum Styles, and I was left wondering why he has not played far more this season.

 

The difference in the way Leeds pressed (as a line of three) as opposed to our “one man raid” approach was very noticeable in the first half. Consequently, it was far to easier to play around us. It’s also a huge waste of effort, which in turn takes its toll later in the game.

I was surprised how inflexible the Leeds line up was. They had to make a substitution in order to switch to a back four. This is something we don’t necessarily need to do - and that may be why Struber likes Jordan Williams in the team.

I agree that Jacob Brown looks a bit lost playing centrally. He is decent in the air, and when playing wide, it’s usually possible to get an mismatch with a quick diagonal pass. This was a ploy we started to use before the lockdown, but now seem to have forgotten about

 

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Agree that we would have lost absolutely nothing (literally) if we'd put Halme up front and taken Woodrow off at half-time.

 

I had more sympathy for Woodrow than I've had in other recent games. He looked lively in the 10 role to begin with, and created the chance for Brown early on. In the second half, he was getting more touches in the box, unfortunately, his (and all of our forwards) confidence is shot, and he snatched at his half chances.

My fear when Halme started was that he would be taken off early, and we'd be left wishing we could throw him up front later, and so it proved. I would've taken Sollbauer off at half time and moved Halme to centre back, he switched off for the goal, thinking the ball was going out didn't give himself time to react to the cross. Part of me thinks we played well in the second half, but I also think we flattered to deceive. Thomas had an impact, but his final pass or shot was lacking. If I was giving match ratings, the only players I'd score as 7+ / 10 would be Styles, Andersen and Walton, who made two important saves. Out of the rest, Woodrow and Chaplin had their moments, but lacked composure. Brown lacked any quality in his touches. Mowatt gave the ball away too much and slowed things down. He needs to figure out what sort of player he is. Sollbauer looked like the inexperienced centre back and the full backs struggled.

Finally, onto Struber. Overall, I'm supportive of him and would like to see him confirmed for next season come what may. But, this is the second game running where his changes have been poor. Against Wigan, he knew how much we needed a goal, but didn't do anything until the last ten minutes. Today, he brought Schmidt on again, what did he think would happen, other than the complete derailment of any momentum we had. In the end, we had Styles in defence, Woodrow in midfield and Andersen up front.

He doesn't need to do anything funky for these last two matches. Pick the same 11, maybe start Thomas, put Brown on the right of a 4-4-2, and encourage the high press again, but the biggest thing needed is to work with the midfielders and forwards to try and boost their confidence. We're creating the chances, just need to get enough clean strikes on goal.

 

I do not think that Struber is ever going to play a straight forward 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 that turns into 4-5-1 when we are out of possession. He thinks he is a modern coach, and modern coaches have left behind those old fashioned systems, in favour of more flexible systems that no-one, including the players can understand. They are systems that can be anything to anyone at any time of the game. Systems where the players are flexible enough to change the system at any point in the game, so that it becomes something else.... seamlessly.

The main problem for me is that our players are not up to the quality of the players who play for Jurgen Klopp, and who can change the way that they play their game at will. They are very young players in a very new and challenging league,and they are used to playing either 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. Too many of them are playing outside their comfort zones. Too many of them are playing outside their best positions. Players who looked capable of adapting to the higher league, no longer look up to it as a result.

The other week, someone asked if Struber should stay next season. I voted yes. I argued that these were not his players and until he had assembled his own team, that we should not make harsh judgments. He has not, in my opinion, given this team a fighting chance of staying in the league, because rather than biding his time to introduce his system, and doing so at a time when he had more players qualified to play it, and at a time when he has had a proper chance to coach the rest, he has just introduced it and hoped for the best. Now, this might be part of some bigger plan to coach the system in a lower league in order to be ready for the Championship after our next promotion, but I am not convinced. Instead, I think that he is inflexible, and that is never a great quality in a coach. I have, of course, no say in these matters, but assuming he does stay and assuming the board does support him in the transfer market, then he needs to have a good start next season, or like Stendel, he will be gone.

 

But you and I both know Mr Rain that unless there is a Damascene conversion on the part of our Board he will not be supported in the transfer market. Money will be offered for Mowatt and (however lowly you rate him) Woodrow. For those clubs with an eye for potential, Brown also might be an attractive target. Yes - money is bound to be in shorter supply. But that does not mean all transfer activity will cease, and our Board have been consistent in their willingness to take anything waved in front of them.

Struber (if he stays) is likely to be given more raw recruits to work with. There might be enough to work with in those remaining to mount some sort of promotion challenge. But then the whole ghastly cycle will repeat itself, and those renewing early will be short-changed by viewing a side in the Championship weaker than that they paid to watch. But the majority of fans do not question that approach, which is entirely their right.

 

It is easy to write stuff like this if you are prepared to totally ignore the cost of what you are suggesting should be done. It is simple. We just sign better players, we pay them whatever they want and we ignore any potential outcome that does not fit with the master plan. Unfortunately, those that run the club live in the real world, and the costs and competition there are also real. Whenever you feel like telling the owners just how bad they are, just stop and think, "How much would I be prepared to spend?", and then stop typing.

 

"Assuming the board does support him in the transfer market" was the bit of your post that caught my eye. And that's what I don't think will happen, although I'd be curious to know what you think that support would consist of. I would not spend a single penny investing in a football club, as you know from our previous exchanges. But my point is more that there were four players last Summer who were contracted to us for another year. As last night demonstrated, retaining even a couple of them would probably have given us a good chance of staying up. It would also have given us twelve months more breathing space to slowly bring on Andersen, Halme and Diaby.

[FAQ's
'What would you do?' A: I have no idea - I'm not a football club owner.
'How much would you spend?' A: Not a penny - but I would have retained a bit better.
'How can you keep players when they want to leave?' A: A simple matter of law. They are contracted unless/until I release them, which would depend on having first recruited a suitable replacement.]

 

Then you end up with a situation as we have had since lockdown where a player that doesn’t want to be here ends up being a passenger .

 

I'd put up with that to make a point. The others would be in no doubt. But if I have a replacement ready, they can go.

 

Players in the final year of their contracts will undoubtedly be sold. To do anything else would be a reckless waste of money. Players who are on contracts that we cannot afford in the league below are going to be sold. To do anything else would lose the club too much money. The last time that we went into league 1, with its different financial control protocols, we lost £4m before player trading. Now it looks like you would ignore that, and sail majestically on into Administration, but responsible people just cannot do that. They have to face up to the financial consequences of their decisions in a way that supporters can just ignore if it suits their argument. They can then insist that the ownership model is doomed to fail, and withdraw their support if they want to. It is their choice. The only thing that I would ask is why our owners would willingly chose to reduce the value of their investment by adopting a policy that is bound to fail. The answer is that they wouldn't, but disappointed fans need some excuse in order to salve their consciences when they remove their financial support. It is now extremely difficult to survive the first few years in the Championship, and trying to make out that it is not is simply painting a false picture.

 

Once the word gets round (which it will) about how we've enforced the contract length, how do you continue to attract new signings?
"Come to Barnsley, sign your rights away, limit your career options" doesn't quite work as a recruitment slogan, does it?

You'd be ok if every other club did the same thing, but that's never going to happen.

 

They will kill the club with the miserable regime they are running.