EFL-focused journalist George Elek appeared on a recent edition of the ‘Not The Top 20’ podcast where he discussed this past weekend’s round of Championship fixtures, including Leeds United’s 2-0 loss to Cardiff City.
Leeds and Cardiff went head to head on Sunday in what was both teams’ first league fixture since the seventh of March. Leeds’ five-game Championship win streak came to an end in Sunday’s game, as goals from Junior Hoilett and Robert Glatzel helped the Bluebirds to secure a 2-0 victory. This meant that West Brom’s 0-0 draw with Birmingham City was enough to see them knock Leeds off of the Championship’s top spot following the weekend’s fixtures.
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Elek shared his thoughts on the Whites’ performance during his recent appearance on the Not The Top 20 podcast, where he said: “This wasn’t a good performance. Irrespective of the fact that it was 2.5-0.2 xG, there was so much wrong with the way that Leeds played, that I think this is a case where you have to be fairly concerned.
“Give Cardiff credit where it’s due, and the fact does remain, this wasn’t a 2-0 match for Cardiff, this wasn’t a game in which they created the chances to justify scoring two goals and Leeds certainly created enough to score one – I would say that Alex Smithies is probably Man of the Match for the saves that he made at crucial times – but there were so many troubling performances from Leeds, it’s hard to really get past that.”
Are you concerned about Leeds' promotion hopes following Sunday's loss?YES I AM
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TIF Thoughts…
As per Infogol, Leeds United’s xG was significantly higher than Cardiff’s this past weekend, as Elek suggested, despite the fact that Cardiff ultimately came away with a 2-0 victory. This statistic provides an indication of the quality of chances that both of these teams generated in Sunday’s fixture and as a result, this helps us to determine that the Whites did create higher quality chances than the Bluebirds, however, the fact remains that Leeds still failed to score.
According to WhoScored, the Whites’ striker Patrick Bamford earned a disappointing average overall rating of just 5.6 against Cardiff. Meanwhile, his fellow Leeds striker, Jean-Kevin Augustin, was not fit to play the fixture, as per Leeds journalist Phil Hay. With that in mind, Leeds’ striking options may be cause for concern for the club’s fans at the moment.