Leeds Player Ratings - Leeds 0 - 2 Preston

Leeds United put in a very poor performance against Preston North End and were dumped out of the Carabao Cup. Preston fully deserved the win and despite them having 10 men for over an hour, Leeds never looked like scoring.

Every Leeds player was at best inconsistent with their passing and Leeds seemed to only have one plan of attack: Get the ball wide, put in a poor cross. Preston defended well and packed the middle but that doesn’t mean you can’t try something different when the wide play isn’t working.

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

Jamal Blackman - Nothing he could have done about the penalty for the first goal, or the excellent strike from Brandon Barker that provided the second. In the build up to the penalty being given away he played a short goal kick to Conor Shaughnessy despite him being in a poor position to receive the ball and his distribution was far too slow in general. Not going to threaten BPF’s position at the moment. 5/10

Stuart Dallas - I personally expected him to play in central midfield with Jamie Shackleton at right-back, now the game is over, maybe we should have done that? Captained the side.

Gave the ball away which lead to the penalty, shouldn’t have been given the ball by Shaughnessy but he still should have done better. Got into some good positions down the right flank but his crossing was consistently poor. 4.5/10

Conor Shaughnessy - Bad day at the office. Made his first error almost immediately as he dwelled on the ball at the back and had his ball forward blocked. It was a sign of things to come. Played Dallas into trouble straight after and in chasing back gave away a penalty (which in the ground looked a bit soft). Consistently poor decision making with the exception of one, admittedly excellent, cross field ball to start an attack.

Topped it off with some pub-team level defending to allow Barker to run 50 yards with the ball and hammer the ball home. He was a centre-back running away from the danger, unacceptable. Hooked at half-time and deservedly so. I said on twitter that today was a big game for him, a real chance to impress, he did not take the chance. He was bullied by Louis Moult whenever they went against each other. I aren’t sure if it was down to who he was next to but he looked physically smaller than he did before his injury.

He has had good games a centre-back so hopefully he bounces back from this. To write him off would be reactionary at best and ridiculous at worst. 2.5/10

Pontus Jansson - Won plenty of balls in the air and a fair few tackles. Good job he had a decent game considering the day his CB partner had. Had a header cleared off the line in the first half. Then a couple of chances from set-pieces in the second half, one was well blocked, one he should have done better. 6.5/10

Tom Pearce - Much like Dallas, didn’t make the most of his crossing opportunities. His defending was fine and he showed guts to get through the final 25mins when clearly carrying an injury. 5/10

Kalvin Phillips - Not amazing first half but was often left on his own in the midfield battle. Second half, moved to centre-back and looked solid enough but by this point Leeds’ defenders weren’t under that much pressure. Better second half than first. 6/10

Tyler Roberts - Against Bolton Wanderers in the last round, I said this of Roberts:

This time there were more under par performances, but Roberts main impact on the game being a yellow card for a cynical foul says a lot about this performance. 4/10

Jamie Shackleton - Had a decent effort saved by Chris Maxwell but came out second best in the midfield battle. Went off at half-time and was apparently struggling with injury. Poorest game in the first team, but he has been very good in the others. 5/10

Lewis Baker - Showed some decent touches and a few nice passes but didn’t make the impact on the game that he would have liked. Still one of the better Leeds performers on the day. 5.5/10

Jack Harrison - Far more willing to get on the ball than Roberts on the other side. End product wasn’t up to scratch. Similar to what we have seen in his other outings this season. Does show glimpses of the player highly rated at Manchester City, but we need to see more of it if he is going to make the starting XI in the league. 5/10

Patrick Bamford - Didn’t get great service but did have two of Leeds better efforts. Not a performance to write home about for him but he was one of the least to blame for today for me. Far too often he won a ball in the air and no Leeds player was within 20 yards of him, kept having to drop deep to get on the ball and no-one was moving into the striker position, which we do see with the “1st team”. 5/10

SUBSTITUTES

Samu Saiz (for Shaughnessy, HT) - The only player able to consistently beat a player. Passing was inconsistent but if Leeds were going to do anything, it looked like Saiz would be involved. Stood out yet again. 6.5/10

Mateusz Klich (for Shackleton, HT) - Solid enough but didn’t stamp his authority on the game as he has previously. Played in the deeper role that Phillips usually does but the packed central areas of Preston made things hard for him. 5/10

Ezgjan Alioski - (for Roberts, 61mins) - Couldn’t get into the game, but was still more involved than the man he replaced. Sliced his one decent chance after a poor punch from Maxwell. 5/10