Brilliant. Just brilliant. Two losses in two games since the restart, and now we’re looking more likely to drop out of the playoff places than we are to get the automatic promotion spots. Even Forest are above us now. Sigh…
When the lineup came out, overall (apart from Arter obviously), I was pretty happy. Bobby Reid got his chance on the left-wing, and Reed was starting his second game in a row, beautiful stuff. Although I was happy with the Starting XI, I wasn’t as happy with the bench. There was no option of a striker to come on if we fell behind, not even Stansfield. Now all of a sudden thanks to the disappearance of Abou Kamara, we look exceptionally light for attacking options. Once again, all hope falls on Mitro…
Well, Parker might need to find a new tune to play at Loftus Road on Tuesday night and for the foreseeable future. Many fans have had sympathy with Mitrović this season over the lack of support he receives in Parker’s system and the weight carried on his shoulders to provide the goals. He’s clearly a frustrated figure at the moment but there can be no excuses to defend his moment of madness, elbowing Ben White in the face for no apparent reason. The game was only a few minutes old, so I can’t see anything that could have happened beforehand that would have sparked such stupidity. There was previous between the pair at the Cottage in the reverse fixture and Mitro seemed more than happy to leave a mark early on the Brighton loanee. In hindsight, it probably wouldn’t have affected the outcome much if the referee had seen it and shown him a straight red but at the time it felt ‘lucky’ that we had got away with one. Ollie Watkins must be rubbing his hands together as the FA now have a decision to make. They have opened an inquiry into the incident and by rights should ban the Serbian for at least 3 matches. Meaning Brentford’s top scorer could have a free hit at sealing the race for the Golden Boot.
Putting the elbow aside, Fulham started the more lively team out of the two, which was encouraging given the fact it was a must-win for us. Knockaert had a few chances, a couple off target and a volley that forced a good save. We looked quite positive but weren’t able to finish off our chances, sound familiar? Bamford on the other hand, the striker that allegedly doesn’t score enough goals, managed to open the scoring in the 9th minute with his first opportunity. Arter gave the ball away carelessly, presenting Leeds with a gift. It appeared to demoralise the players for a couple of minutes, but they got straight back up and showed some character, dominating for large spells for the rest of the half, the only thing missing was a goal! But if Bobby Reid is going to fall over his own feet, six yards out, what hope have you got.
The referee then made up for missing the Mitrović elbow by waving away our strong claims for a penalty around the 35th minute when Roberts clearly handled the ball. It was certainly accidental but wasn’t unavoidable like a shot being smashed at a players hand in a natural position. This was just careless from the Leeds man and should have been punished with a penalty. We ended the half with 65% possession, and 8 shots compared to their 3 and the only thing more irritating than Steve McLaren’s ‘expert analysis’ was the fact that we hadn’t capitalised on our first-half dominance. What happens next is so predictable of Fulham’s season…
The second half was a completely different story. We definitely didn’t pick up where we left off and Leeds scored to double their lead after some shocking defending from the whole Fulham team. The timing of the goal demonstrated exactly how costly not taking your chances can be as it was a counter-attack off the back of a golden chance squandered by Bobby Reid. The second goal killed the game, we looked flat, unfit and lacking in ideas.
The midfield battle that we controlled in the first half was lost in the second as Bielsa brought on Pablo Hernandez to give Leeds a foothold in the middle of the park. The Spaniard controlled the game and brought the possession stats back in the home sides favour. This forced players like Cairney and Arter to run around chasing the ball and we couldn’t cope with the extra gear that Leeds were able to take it to.
Calamity defending showed its face again to give Leeds a third goal with the ball somehow finding its way passed Rodak from the tightest of angles from the tamest of efforts. I don’t think he could have tried any harder not to save it. This gave Leeds a winning margin that didn’t really justify our first-half performance but certainly separated the men from the boys in this promotion race. Just like last week vs Brentford, a decent first-half display with key chances missed, resulting in tactical changes by the opposing manager, with Parker seeming incapable of responding. In my opinion, it has really exposed his incompetence or (benefit of the doubt) naivety as a rookie manager. The rest of the game was just terrible and the players seemed lost. Scott brought on fresh legs in Onomah, Johansen and Cavaleiro but at that stage, it was only for damaged limitation. Kebano was sent off in injury time which summed up the afternoon. He’ll have to watch from home on Tuesday but he’s spent most match days over the past 3 seasons doing that anyway…
Overall it was a shocking game. Arter shouldn’t be anywhere near the starting line up for the QPR match and Knockaert/ Bobby don’t cross enough or convert their chances. Joe Bryan still can’t defend and Parker looks more out of his depth the more this mini-season begins to unravel.
QPR have also lost their opening two games and there’s have come against two sides who were in the bottom three. So, on paper, it seems an ideal opportunity to bounce back. It’s important we get back to winning ways ASAP. Fingers crossed for Tuesday night.
