Blackburn Rovers 1 Leeds United 0: YEP video verdict

Yorkshire Evening Post

Leeds United writer Lee Sobot with his verdict from the Ewood Park stands on the 1-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers as Daniel Farke's Whites blow the chance to move back top.

Transcript

00:00Hello there, Lee Sobot at the Yorkshire Evening Post here from Ewood Park where we hoped to

00:07be reporting on positive news as Leeds United returned back to the top of the Championship.

00:12Unfortunately that wasn't the case and far from it as Daniel Farks-White fell to a very

00:17very disappointing 1-0 defeat. As I'm recording this Burnley are playing right this second

00:23and we'll obviously wait and see what happens with that one. But what we do know is that

00:26that defeat has left them three points behind Sheffield United who we must remember also

00:30have had two points docked so obviously they would be five points better off but for that

00:33you could say that's immaterial. But what it does show is that overall so far this season

00:38they would actually be on, in terms of football ability anyway, five points better off than

00:42Leeds so that's a little bit worrying. But probably the most worrying thing really here

00:47was just the performance to be honest as the Whites suffered a 1-0 reverse which really

00:52was quite hard to argue with I think in terms of what they deserved. You could say maybe

00:57that Leeds deserved the point because they did have quite a lot of chances but to be

00:59quite honest so too did Blackburn and it just was very disappointing and you had 7,500 fans

01:05here in the away end and their general demeanour at the end was not surprisingly one of much

01:10disappointment I think really and just wanted to see a bit more from their team. It kind

01:14of felt like one of those games where there was nine minutes added time and there was

01:18even more than that in the end where it just looked like it wasn't happening for Leeds

01:21whatsoever and in the end a penalty converted by Todd Cantwell proved the only goal of

01:26the game and surprising really that the player who gave that penalty away was one of the

01:30standout players of the season so far and Yao Tanaka, a foul on Tyrese Dolan who was

01:35by far Blackburn's best player, a very, very good young player he is indeed. Lots of energy,

01:39lots of skill, Leeds struggled to deal with him, they struggled to deal with Cantwell

01:42who was in the groove but Dolan burst into the penalty area, Tanaka sort of, well basically

01:48it was like a barge really, a shoulder barge but too much of a shoulder barge and just

01:51took him down and the referee thought about it and then pointed to the spot and up step

01:55Cantwell, very, very good penalty, almost perfect penalty, right into the bottom left

01:59corner, Melier went the right way, nuts and lucky not to save it really but such was the

02:02precision that Cantwell put on it that was 1-0 and it has to be said that Leeds were

02:07saved by the frame of the goal about 10 minutes before that from that man Dolan who stuck

02:12a header against a crossbar so Leeds got very, very lucky there as well otherwise that could

02:16have been 2-0 with the penalty. Yes, they had chances themselves but just weren't ruthless

02:20or clinical enough really and to my eye the only person who ever looked like scoring for

02:25Leeds was Willy Nonso in the first half anyway and he wasn't able to take his chances, Pez

02:30in goal made a couple of good saves but just disappointing really and Leeds never really

02:34got into the groove. In the end a triple substitution from Daniel Farke, probably a little bit too

02:39late in the second half but it has to be said the three that came on didn't really do an

02:42awful lot themselves either. I'm trying to think of the chances, Pascal Stroik had a

02:46very good chance with the header from a free kick which forced Pez into a good save, there

02:50were other bits and bobs of chances as well but nothing particularly like goal misses

02:55really wise and just a really disappointing display. And day and performance all round

03:02and that comes at the end of what would have been a very, very good week had Leeds even

03:06got a point here today and made it 7-9 but that really puts a sour note end on the week

03:11really after the last two victories. I think the thing is Leeds have obviously been very,

03:15very good at home, there's various things you could ask about this team at the moment.

03:19One thing you can definitely say is they need to be better away from home, obviously they

03:22had the win at Swansea City recently and they have had victories away from home but there's

03:26been too many games at the moment that they've fallen to defeats away from home. When teams

03:30go 1-0 up and they sit back and have a low block and stuff they find that hard to break

03:34down but it has to be said Blackburn still came out and had chances, Campbell had two

03:37glorious chances at the end, the game should have been over before it headed to nine minutes

03:40added time to be honest. I don't know about the drawing board because obviously they're

03:46still going to be in a reasonably good position whatever happens with Burnley but it's a massive

03:50chance blown obviously because they could have gone back level with Sheffield United

03:54and now obviously going into these back-to-back home games, Derby next weekend at Ellen Road

03:58and then Middlesbrough which is going to be huge the following midweek where really you

04:02want to be getting six points to get very much back on track and no game is easy in

04:07the Championship and especially the Borough one will be very, very difficult and no doubt

04:10Derby will be too. So the bats are relying on their home form I suppose to hopefully

04:14get themselves back into pole position but that now depends somewhat on what Sheffield

04:17United do, obviously we'll have to see what Burnley do as well but you know this Leeds

04:21United side, odds on favourites or were before today, I'm sure there still will be for the

04:25league title, very, very long odds on favourites to get promoted one way or the other whether

04:29it's automatics or through the playoffs about 1-10, 1-12 even with some bookies that were

04:33before this one, that will now be a little bit bigger than that but on that evidence

04:37you wouldn't be taking that price about it, I mean hopefully they can still get it done,

04:40they've definitely got the squad to do it but therein probably lies the problem because

04:43you know with that squad really, that performance today wasn't really good enough for the players

04:47they've got and I think that's probably why a lot of fans will be very, very disappointed

04:51this evening after making that trip over to Blackburn, 7,500 of them ultimately leaving

04:56very disappointed as it's finished here, Blackburn Rovers 1, Leeds United 0.

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