First lesson for Christiansen at Leeds

Thomas Christiansen – skysports.com

Thomas Christiansen has had a huge impact at Leeds United. He deserves great credit, both for taking the club into automatic promotion contention and widening the technical capabilities of his players.

In the last two away games however, his side has struggled to handle high-tempo, physical sides in Millwall and Cardiff. They lost 3-0 to the latter on Tuesday night and while their defeat at the Den was only 1-0, their performance deserved heavier punishment.

The Whites struggled with the South Londoners’ physical prowess – that was with the potentially muscular Vurnon Anita, Eunan O’Kane and Jean-Pierre Lasogga in the side. None of that trio played in the capital, replaced respectively by Gaetano Berardi, Mateusz Klich and Kemar Roofe, who if anything were going to struggle even more with the physical side of the game.

Power and tenacity – allied with a healthy dousing of quality – is where Cardiff have achieved their early-season success. Kalvin Phillips and Klich were overawed by their midfield and were unable to get a griphold on the game, the latter bullied off the ball in the lead-up to the first goal. Although Liam Bridcutt, now at Nottingham Forest, is by no means the perfect midfielder, he would have provided some bite and would have relished the aggressive side of the game. For the second goal, the whole back-line was forced back too easily by Kenneth Zahore’s run and thus, Junior Hoilett was given acres of space to get his shot away – taking nothing away from the quality of it.

Liam Cooper took the need to be combative a little too literally, with a couple of bad challenges that led to his sending off, effectively killing off the contest. Cardiff used the extra space to add a third late on through Zahore and though Roofe scored a consolation off the post, he hadn’t given his side the qualities they needed up top. He lacked the pace to run in behind and the power to hold the ball up, meaning that Leeds couldn’t go long, even when their defenders came under pressure.

That performance should teach Christiansen and Leeds an early lesson, which they must heed if they are to win promotion, as they have shown the potential to do. He must consider the strengths of the opposition when picking a line-up – Leeds won’t be able to play every game on their own terms.