Leeds Player Ratings - Birmingham 1 - 0 Leeds

Leeds United surrendered 2nd place back to Sheffield United with a poor performance at St Andrews which resulted in a 1-0 win for Birmingham City. A goal from Che Adams was enough to end a run of 5 successive defeats for the home side as Leeds once again managed to end another teams poor run.

Leeds made far too many errors in all areas of the pitch and were punished for them. In the end Leeds only managed to force Lee Camp into one save, and if Leeds don’t improve in regards to breaking teams down when they sit back they are not going to be able to reclaim a top 2 spot.

For a full recap of the match you can read Pete’s piece here.

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

Kiko Casilla - Man of the Match on his return from suspension. Made 6 saves, of which 3 or 4 were good saves. Distribution was good and he came off his line well on a lot of occasions. Bad sign that he had so much to do. 8/10

Kalvin Phillips - Played as central CB, right CB, and his usual DM role today but couldn’t get a grip on the game. Made some good tackles and played some good passes, but also gave the ball away very sloppily in a poor area just before the Birmingham goal. Got caught under the ball for another Adams chance as well as being skinned for a 3rd chance. Not easy to keep having your role shifted. 6/10

Pontus Jansson - The best of Leeds’ CBs. Won a lot in the air against Lukas Jutkiewicz and Che Adams which is a tough ask. Was alright in the tackle. Unlucky to get booked for a tackle on Maxime Colin where he missed him by a few yards. 7/10

Liam Cooper - Never looked comfortable today. Had too many passes intercepted, nearly got himself into trouble by treading on the ball. Struggled more in the air against Birmingham’s strikers than Jansson and also Phillips. Not awful but not up to the standard he would expect from himself. 5.5/10

Luke Ayling - Jacques Maghoma got a little bit too much joy down his side at times. Had some good moments going forward. Should have had an assist with a good left-foot cross but Bamford hit the post. 6/10

Mateusz Klich - The 3-3-1-3 doesn’t suit him nearly as well as the 4-1-4-1. Looked a little lost until Birmingham sat in after the goal. Provided a good cross at the end of the first half. Had a spell in the second half where he started to cause Birmingham problems with his passing and movement, popping up out wide on occasions and playing Stuart Dallas in behind with an excellent pass that should have lead to a goal. 6/10

Ezgjan Alioski - Industrious as always but let down in terms of quality far too often. Had one half-chance with a volley at the end of the first half. Simple passing was fine but wasteful with his crosses, some of which he had lots of time and space for. 5/10

Tyler Roberts - Came up with some nice flicks but never really looked like he would be the one to open the door, with the exception of an excellent cross to Bamford for Leeds’ only effort on target. Early on got in behind with support arriving but went for goal from an almost impossible angle. 5.5/10

Pablo Hernandez - Another who played in numerous positions. After his performance against Millwall I feel bad for typing this but he was poor today. Probably the most wasteful player on the pitch. Lost possession repeatedly and I think he made Roberts job more difficult as they both seemed to want to play in the same spaces. Hernandez ended up dropping deep to try and dictate the game as he did last weekend but didn’t do close to enough with the ball. Took a lot of set-pieces and they were consistently bad. 5/10

Jack Harrison - Never got into the game. Not a surprise when he was hooked at Half-Time as you could have forgotten he was on the pitch. Didn’t look to have much confidence with the ball at his feet today. 4/10

Patrick Bamford - His movement was improved from the game against Millwall. Seems to have lost his confidence. Could have had a perfect hat-trick on a day where he had brought his shooting boots. Hit the post with a cushioned left-foot effort from Ayling’s cross when he had to score. Skied one way over the bar from Dallas’ pull-back with his right foot in the second half, another one he really should have scored. Then was denied by a good save from Lee Camp when he got his head to a good cross from Tyler Roberts. In the first half you could have thought he had Teflon boots on as he was unable to get the ball to stick whenever it was played forward to him. Better than against Millwall, likely to receive the brunt of the criticism for missing those chances. 4.5/10

SUBSTITUTES

Stuart Dallas (for Harrison, HT) - Should have had an assist when he set up Bamford for a great chance. Found it harder as the half went on but probably Leeds most effective wide player on the day in an attacking sense. 6/10

Kemar Roofe (for Bamford, 70mins) - Looked off the pace, couldn’t get on the ball enough and when he did he lost it too often. Made a few good runs in behind but was no more effective than Bamford. Just didn’t miss the chances that Bamford did. 5/10

Jack Clarke (for Klich, 70mins) - Tried to run at people but Birmingham did a good job against him when he did get 1v1 with a defender. Leeds lack of penetration could see him given a start on Tuesday night at Preston North End. 5/10