BIELSA HIT BY SUCKER PUNCH
Wasteful Whites robbed at the death
CHRIS Martin scored his first Derby goal for two years as Leeds yet again failed to turn dominance into victory.
Nottingham Forest, Swansea City and now Derby County have all been played off the park at Elland Road.
Yet Marcelo Bielsa’s men have taken just two points from those games, falling to a late sucker punch every time.
This was the grisliest of the lot, with Max Lowe’s early own goal followed by multiple spurned chances, a missed penalty from Mateusz Klich and 70 minutes of total control against a Derby side who showed less ambition than a teenage slacker.
Martin’s late strike – his first in Derby colours since November 2017 following a succession of loans – was the Rams’ only shot on target of the match and left Bielsa singing a familiar lament.
“This has happened a lot of times to us, but today was the worst,” said the Argentine. “We played 60 minutes very, very good. Maybe the best 60 minutes since I have been coach of the team.
“For the next 15 minutes, we were still superior. But then the pressure faded. We lacked mobility. The players chose to go long and we could not regain that superiority.
“We should have controlled the end of the match. This I admit. But remember, they shot once in all of the match, after we had created between ten and 12 chances.
“A team that restricts the opponent to just one chance in 90 minutes should have done enough to win. And if we had won, we would have been talking about a very experienced
team who had closed down the match. That is the real story for me.”
Not, however, for Phillip Cocu, who suggested that Leeds’ fallibility to late goals is a natural consequence of their high tempo style.
“The way Leeds play is really good,” said the former Barcelona midfielder. “They have quality players, all comfortable under pressure. Their movement is excellent.
“But to keep at the same level for 90 minutes is extremely difficult. That is why the key element for this day was to stay in the game after we conceded. to our plan, kill the game for five or ten minutes. Don’t overdo things because we knew the energy would be gone from Leeds and if we got to the last part of the game we would have possibilities to play. It wasn’t easy, but we never stopped believing.”
Belief was pretty much the only thing going for Derby during a torrid first half in which their policy of playing from the back was ruthlessly exploited.
The Rams had already survived several hairy moments when a Kalvin Phillips freekick was smartly cut back by Patrick Bamford. Dallas smashed goalwards, Kelle Roos saved, and Lowe could do nothing as the rebound ricocheted in via his shins.
The remainder of the first half was played almost entirely in Derby territory. Bamford chipped over. Dallas managed a further two efforts on goal, the best cleared off the line by Richard Keogh.
That the Scot had so much time to attack is hardly a surprise; Derby spent less than two minutes of the first period in Leeds’ half of the pitch.
If the visitors improved after the break, it was marginal. Matt Clarke’s clumsy foul on BamStick ford – who had earlier struck a post – should have wrapped things up, but Klich rolled his spot-kick wide and Leeds never regained their former intensity.
Tiring legs on the pitch, jitters in the stand and the scars of past failures all attributed to a feeling of inevitability, and so it proved when Martin swept home Jamie Paterson’s pass to cap a flowing move utterly at odds with anything else the Rams had produced all day.
“If you look at Chris, it’s not just that he scores,” said Cocu. “He holds the ball, he links play, he takes up good positions. He deserved this today.”