Leeds Player Ratings - Fulham 2 - 0 Leeds

Leeds were second best all match and Fulham got a deserved 2-0 victory on the balance of play. However, if it wasn’t for some abject finishing from Leeds’ attacking players it could have been a different story.

Time now (a bit later than normal, sorry) 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

Bailey Peacock-Farrell - Made a couple of very good saves to deny Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ryan Sessegnon respectively. Had one Felix Wiedwald style flap at a ball under pressure from Mitrovic and his distribution wasn’t at his best. Second goal was close to him but came through a lot of bodies so wasn’t an easy one for any keeper. Probably still Man of the Match despite being far from perfect. 6.5/10

Stuart Dallas - Fulham got in down the Leeds right far too much in the first half, Dallas got pulled too central too often and seemed a yard slow to react. Some mitigation for him in that he is not a fullback and was against the most in-form player in the Championship in Sessegnon. Better in the second half, one excellent clearing header over his own crossbar under a lot of pressure. Would have been half a point higher if he hadn’t done such a poor dive to try and win a second half penalty. 5/10

Matthew Pennington - Marking at corners was poor from Leeds all match. Both Jansson and Pennington have to take the blame for it (among others) and a vast improvement is needed in that area. Won a couple of tackles but overall didn’t look up to facing a striker of Mitrovic’s level last night. Went off injured which could lead to a chance for Paudie O’Connor who travelled with the squad yesterday, as did striker Sam Dalby. 5/10

Pontus Jansson - Same as Pennington but better in the air and better passing. Gets him half a mark over his partner at CB. Should get a fine according to the “dad rules” of football for committing the sin of a foul throw right at the end of the game. 5.5/10

Gaetano Berardi - Not a great deal to say. Passing was decent and made a couple of decent challenges but struggled with the pace of Floyd Ayite. Think we should go back to Berardi right-back and bring Tom Pearce back in on the left for the game against Sunderland. 5/10

Eunan O’Kane - Going off injured may not have been the worst thing for him. Had only completed 5 passes in his 22 minutes on the pitch before he went off with a groin injury. Had that carried on for an hour he could well have got a lower mark. The sort of midfield performance that will have Leeds fans questioning why Mateusz Klich is on loan at FC Utrecht. 4/10

Ronaldo Vieira - Didn’t do enough first half, as was the case for most, but improved in the second half. Retained the ball well in comparison with his teammates (Fulham’s players put us to shame a bit in terms of this). Had a couple of shots from distance but they were tame efforts. 6/10

Ezgjan Alioski - Covered plenty of ground as usual but nowhere near as effective as he was against Bolton Wanderers. Was caught offside when looking across the line with a chance to go clean through and made his run too early, one of a few wasted Leeds chances. 5.5/10

Samu Saiz - Nowhere near his best and looked very frustrated during the game. Despite this, produced a couple of good runs where he beat a couple of players and produced a trememdous cross with the outside of his right-foot to give Jay-Roy Grot an absolute sitter, which he of course headed over the bar. 6/10

Pablo Hernandez - Got himself on the ball more as the game went on but much like Saiz never got near to his best. 6/10

Caleb Ekuban - As always, worked hard. Missed another one-on-one when Leeds were 1-0 down and within 14 seconds it was 2-0. Never looked like he would finish the chance and unfortunately that is the difference between the sides at the top of this division and ourselves. His link-up play was much poorer than it was against Bolton as well. 4/10

SUBSTITUTES

Kalvin Phillips (for O’Kane, 22mins) - Not great but better than O’Kane. Looked more up for the (admittedly difficult) battle with Fulham’s midfield. With Forshaw and O’Kane out you would assume Vieira and Phillips start in CM against Sunderland, personally wouldn’t mind seeing Vernon Anita in midfield. 5.5/10

Jay-Roy Grot (for Alioski, 72mins) - Somehow managed to miss a chance even easier than the one Ekuban had. Only completed two passes, another (like O’Kane) whose rating could have been worse if on the pitch for longer. 4/10

Pierre-Michel Lasogga (for Ekuban, 72mins) - How I wish the chances that fell to Ekuban and Grot and fallen to Lasogga. Made a couple of good runs, including one where he was hacked down by one of the most cynical challenges you will ever see. Didn’t get involved in the game nearly as much as you would like though. Can’t understand why Lasogga wasn’t on earlier. 5/10