Leeds Player Ratings - Brentford 3 - 1 Leeds

Leeds United were pretty poor in the first half. They improved in the second half. To be honest I am too pissed off to write anything in detail and you are all here to read about one particular performance so I won’t delay you from doing so. 6 defeats in 7 league games, that (although I wouldn’t sack him) is the kind of form that gets a manager sacked.

Time now to look at each player and how they performed. As always you can tell me how wrong I am @mightywhitespod or @ThruItAllLUFC on twitter.

STARTING LINE-UP

Andy Fucking Lonergan - This is second in the list of all time worst performances by a Leeds United goalkeeper since I started going to watch Leeds United in 1996. Andy Lonergan should be really ashamed of himself and I am sure, as everyone who has met him says he is a nice guy, that he is ashamed of himself.

I always said to myself that getting a rating of 0/10 was impossible to achieve because Paul Rachubka against Blackpool was the only player who has ever deserved that. This was half a notch above that. This was pathetic. This was a performance that would have been abysmal in a low-level Sunday league match. This was the kind of performance that makes people wonder about the integrity of the sport (not saying he did anything in those terms, saying you could believe it based on how bad it was).

I am a terrible goalkeeper, and I genuinely believe I could’ve done better. I am now in the worst shape of my life, and I still think I would’ve done better. The guy that played in goal for my team when I was a kid, Tom Margiotta, genuinely could have done better with zero irony or exaggeration. KC, (from our podcast) who was our back up goalkeeper and really was not that good in goal, could have done better, still serious.

Felix Wiedwald was dropped after a very poor performance against Sheffield Wednesday. Andy Lonergan’s performance made Felix Wiedwald against Sheff Wed look like Lev Fucking Yashin after having his DNA combined with Gordon Banks, Dino Zoff and the best of the lot, Nigel Martyn. If TC dropped Wiedwald, not only should he drop Lonergan, he should banish him to a far away land and make him join the rest of us amateurs playing FIFA 18 and Football Manager 2018.

Is my assessment harsh? Possibly.

Do I feel bad about this level of vitriol? Not even slightly.

The mistake for the first goal, dropping the ball a couple of yards out so that Neal Maupay has a tap in, under absolutely no pressure from the opposition is the kind of mistake that a Keeper makes once in a career and is forgivable in a vacuum.

The second Brentford goal comes from the most average free-kick you will ever see from Yoann Barbet, it is an incredibly simple save and Lonergan didn’t look like he would save it given 100 attempts. Weirdly, this one actually annoyed me more than the first one.

This was fucking abysmal, this was pathetic, this was shameful. This was useless. All he needed was to get one of our own players sent off as Rachubka did with Tom Lees against Blackpool and this would have been a zero. This ought to be only thing I write but there were other players and some of them weren’t bad. 0.5/10

Luke Ayling - For the first time in a few games we can say that none of the goals were particularly his fault. He was not good today but he wasn’t particularly bad either. In the first half Brentford got in behind him a little bit too easily and he missed an absolute sitter at 1-2 that could have got Leeds a point that some of the players deserved. Poor by his overall standards, average by his recent standards. 5/10

Pontus Jansson - A few good blocks but gave away possession far too much and the tackle he made to give Brentford a penalty was, not only from behind and a really stupid tackle to make, but was also made with the wrong foot showing a lack of technique as well as a lack of footballing intelligence. Pontus Jansson is still one of the best defenders in this league even if his current performances do not show it. 4.5/10

Liam Cooper - Was not to blame for any of the major issues today. Didn’t do anything particularly well either. An average performance. Got a bit lucky with a poor tackle in the first half that was probably a yellow card and certain referees may have seen it as worse than that. 6/10

Gaetano Berardi - Made a lot of decent tackles and quietly had a pretty decent game. In the second half provided some attacking threat down the left-hand side. A performance that will probably solidify him in the side after his hot-headed moment against Bristol City. 6.5/10

Ronaldo Vieira - Had a very good second half. Was able to produce a very good save from Daniel Bentley and kept finding space on the edge of the box. By a long way the pick of our central midfielders despite being pretty quiet during the first half. 6.5/10

Eunan O’Kane - His main job is to be the player who controls the midfield with his passing, he failed to do this job and also picked up a yellow card for a cynical challenge. Passing was poor and this was the second worst performance I have seen him have this season behind his aberration away at Sheffield Wednesday. 4/10

Ezgjan Alioski - Very quiet in the first half but so were all our attacking players. Good sign is that he didn’t hide and kept making himself available for the ball. Seized on Daniel Bentley’s error to score the equaliser and with two men between him and the goal produced a header that looked a lot easier than it was. A player who was in danger of being dropped but played well enough to stay in the side despite not being anywhere near to his performances at Sunderland and Nottingham Forest. 6/10

Kalvin Phillips - Anonymous in the first half, main contribution to the second half was giving away the free-kick that Brentford scored their second goal from. A down night in an up and down season. 5/10

Samu Saiz - Not his best day. His choice of pass/shot in the first half left a lot to be desired and was far from immune from errors. As usual, however, a lot of Leeds best play went through Saiz (especially in the first half where there was little “best stuff”). He always is available and always stands out as a player of quality even when not at his best. 6/10

Pierre-Michel Lasogga - Back to his worst. Hardly any running, hardly any impact. Had one chance when one-on-one with Bentley and fluffed his attempt at a lob (which wasn’t a difficult one). Removed at half-time and deserved it, even if I personally would have left him on and put Kemar Roofe up front with him. 4/10

SUBSTITUTES

Kemar Roofe (For Lasogga, HT) - While not faultless, Roofe was a vast improvement on Lasogga. He seems to be so much more effective when he plays as a central forward as opposed to playing on the wing. Linked up play well when the opportunity presented itself and depending on how training goes over the International break he could get another chance up front. 6.5/10

Pablo Hernandez (For O’Kane, HT) - Much like Roofe, a vast improvement on the man he replaced. Leeds second half performance wasn’t bad until Lonergan’s second error and Hernandez was a part of that. Although I wouldn’t put it in his best performances of the season. 6/10

Jay-Roy Grot (For Alioski, 80mins) - I will stop quoting my previous articles when they stop being true.

“Yes, he is only 19 and may well improve. Yes, he keeps coming on in tough situations. Does anyone see him scoring a goal? He is so big and well-built yet doesn’t seem strong on the ball or particularly good in the air.”

Actually think he was a bit worse today and that isn’t coming from a high benchmark. Shouldn’t be near the side right now. Although it isn’t all his own fault. 5/10

THE MANAGER

The last couple of games I have had a bit of a dig at Thomas Christiansen in this section. I will start by saying the Grot for Alioski sub seemed stupid when he did it and I saw no evidence to change that opinion.

However, I am going to defend him today overall. He picked a starting XI that should have been better than it was and after a poor first half he made two half time changes which massively improved the side and Leeds got back on to level terms and had a chance to win the game.

He cannot be blamed for Andy Lonergan’s shitshow of a performance. In other matches he has made changes that arguably cost us games whereas today I feel sorry for him. This was not on him even if his decisions weren’t perfect.