Leeds Player Ratings - Leeds 1 - 0 Brentford

Leeds United finally ended their terrible run of games without a win with a 1-0 victory over Brentford FC at Elland Road. The game wasn’t a great game but Leeds were finally able to cut out most of the individual mistakes in key areas and keep a clean sheet.

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

Felix Wiedwald - Made an excellent save to deny John Egan’s well struck volley from the edge of the box. Went long with his distribution too much and often the long balls were misplaced. Scary moment when he chose to punch Alan Judge’s free-kick which was straight at him and not very powerful, luckily for him the rebound was put over the bar. Did enough that he should stay in the side. 6.5/10

Gaetano Berardi - Good performance from the right-back. Tackled well and was well disciplined. No major mistakes of note. Brentford got far more joy down the Leeds left hand side which says a lot for Berardi’s performance (also for Josefzoon on the Brentford’s right side). 7/10

Pontus Jansson - Another good game for the Sweden international. Not as imperious as he was against Derby County, but he didn’t need to be. There were a couple of times where he tried to tackle through a player with his back to goal and gave away a free-kick (including the aforementioned Judge free-kick) but overall a good performance. 7/10

Liam Cooper - A return to form for the captain. A similar level of performance to his centre-back partner Jansson, although he seemed to make more successful tackles. However, scored a really good header for what proved to be the winning goal, he’s missed a few chances this season but it was good to see him get off the mark for the season and when you score the only goal I have to bump up your rating for that. 7.5/10

Vernon Anita - Looked more vulnerable than Berardi on the other side, although compared to De Bock on Wednesday night he looked like Paolo Maldini. Stood off too much when Florian Jozefzoon ran at him, and allowed him to peel off in behind a little too often. However, he recovered well whenever he made a mistake and often made the tackle to regain possession. Would expect him to keep his place. 6.5/10

Eunan O’Kane - Not back to his best but a marked improvement on his last couple of games, both central midfielders were a little bit quiet. In the first half gave the ball away sloppily on a few occasions and crowd started to get a little frustrated. Was better in the second half than in the first and made a couple of very good tackles in midfield. Decent performance but expect he will drop back out for Adam Forshaw for Friday’s trip to Middlesbrough. 6/10

Kalvin Phillips - Similar story to O’Kane. Seemed to make fewer easy errors. Brentford players were able to get too much space in midfield and that falls on both Phillips and O’Kane. Slightly more of a driving force in the game than his midfield partner so just edges him in the ratings. 6.5/10

Stuart Dallas - Worked hard as you would expect and had a solid performance. Not great for keeping possession today but provided some good work defensively when Leeds were under pressure. 6.5/10

Samu Saiz - Took a while to get into the match but, as is often the case, most of Leeds’ good attacking play went through him. The way he turns and goes at defenders whenever he picks up the ball drives the team forward. Didn’t give the ball away much and although a couple of things he tried didn’t come off, they were not in dangerous positions. 7/10

Ezgjan Alioski - We hoped his goal against Derby would give him some confidence and today he put it a good performance. Did pick up a yellow card for leading with his arm when jumping for a header but, despite being on a yellow card for the majority of the game, he made several excellent tackles. Worked his socks off in both directions and provided a fantastic cross from a free-kick (something he has been criticised for) for the only goal. Really good performance for the man from Macedonia. He and Cooper both get 7.5, but think I would give Man of the Match to Alioski just. 7.5/10

Pierre-Michel Lasogga - Not able to get the clear chances he would like but still looked Leeds’ most likely goalscorer. Had one moment where he beat a defender and the goalkeeper but couldn’t get the power on the shot and it was cleared when goalbound. Provided some good hold-up play and was unlucky when the referee pulled play back for a free-kick when he was clean through on goal with Alioski also away from the defence. Leeds lost their presence up front when he was replaced. 7/10

SUBSTITUTES

Caleb Ekuban (for Lasogga, 73 mins) - A bit isolated as Leeds had dropped back by the time he entered the field. Struggled to really have an impact but didn’t do anything particular wrong either. Unlucky with a driven ball in from the left that was just behind Alioski’s run. 5.5/10

Hadi Sacko (For Dallas, 82 mins) - Barely on the ball and didn’t get chance to influence to game. Could have done with a little more composure on the rare occasions he did get the ball but was fine overall. 5.5/10

Ronaldo Vieira (For Saiz, 90+3 mins) - Came on, don’t think he ever touched the ball. N/A