Lee Johnson has claimed Leeds United “could be killed” by a side able to exploit the weaknesses in their playing style.
The Bristol City manager lamented his own team’s failure to take advantage of what he feels are Leeds’s susceptibility to quick-thinking sides in their 1-0 defeat at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
Johnson conceded that the pressure put on his midfield by the visitors, who scored the only goal of the game from Patrick Bamford after nine minutes, proved critical in the final analysis.
“We didn’t exploit the weaknesses of their style which is one or two quick bits of play and find the space,” Johnson said, as quoted by the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“We worked on it through the week and we felt we could expose them. We just couldn’t get enough love of the ball to kill them where they could be killed.”
OPINION
Perhaps the key phrase from Johnson is that his side just couldn’t get enough of the ball to cause real damage. Leeds’ ball-hogging has become a key facet of the style implemented with such success by Marcelo Bielsa since his arrival last summer. The Yorkshire giants have become the Championship version of Manchester City or Liverpool, dominating possession game after game. Johnson is right in identifying the lack of pace in the Leeds spine as one that can be taken advantage of, but the awareness and composure of the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Pontus Jansson, Liam Cooper and Mateusz Klich meant Leeds were able to deal with everything their fellow promotion challengers could throw at them. The victory would have been especially sweet given the boardroom relations of the two clubs, and the comments made by City owner Steve Lansdown in the aftermath of ‘Spygate’.