Leeds United fans on FA Cup defeat to Millwall, player's 'poor' display, frank admission and biggest positive
Leeds United’s fans have had their say on the FA Cup exit to Millwall.
Leeds United fell to a first defeat in 15 games in Saturday’s FA Cup hosting of Millwall - but what the club’s fans think? Here is what our YEP Jury had to say on the weekend’s 2-0 defeat to the Lions in the fourth round including a player’s ‘poor’ display, the biggest positive and a frank admission about the better organised team.
NEIL GREWER
Expect the unexpected. The best part of 50 years watching football has taught me that.
Consequently, I was not surprised when, after dominating the previous two games and scoring nine goals, a Leeds team featuring 10 changes failed to score. Against Cardiff and Coventry, everything fell into place. Against Millwall – nothing fell into place.
Millwall scored against the run of play (although they had not come to ‘park the bus’) with a heavily deflected shot in the first half and then again from another deflection before the hour mark.
Two shots on target, two goals, both helped by poor defending. Meanwhile, Leeds were sloppy in possession and wasteful going forward. Leeds scored a penalty last week (when not needed) yet, when needed, Pascal Struijk saw his penalty saved by Liam Roberts. Just one of many fine saves by the Millwall stopper.
No Leeds player particularly stood out. Issac Schmidt was decent and Sam Chambers had a promising full debut but Josuha Guilavogui was poor. A fair result, with the biggest positive from the day being Sunderland dropping two league points.
Man of the match: Sam Chambers (one of few positives).
ANDY RHODES
With the league being Leeds and Daniel Farke’s obvious priority, a defeat in the cup isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Of course, progression to the fifth round and a potential tie against one of the Premier League ‘big boys’ would have been appealing, but everyone will hope that those games are a regular occurrence next season in the league.
The 10 changes didn’t help United’s cause, as Farke admitted himself post match. However, the rotation was necessary to protect the Leeds manager’s squad from the busy schedule.
If Pascal Struijk’s penalty had gone in, you wouldn’t have bet against Leeds mounting a comeback but it wasn’t to be.
There were positive signs, once again, but all focus should now be on Watford and those two games against Sheffield United and Sunderland.
Everyone knows the remainder of February will be tough but the Whites have shown that they are capable of beating most sides on their day.
As long as this defeat doesn’t disrupt their momentum, you would back them to leave this month behind in a good position.
Man of the match: Largie Ramazani.
DAVID WATKINS
Despite my pre-match prediction that we’d probably lose this tie, I still felt disappointed by the end of the game.
It was always likely that Daniel Farke would make wholesale changes to the usual starting XI and we’ve seen, over the years that, good as your second-string XI might be, the lack of regular match time together was often the crucial deciding factor.
So, my disappointment wasn’t so much the result, but more the way we let ourselves down with some poor individual performances across the board. Too often our passing was sloppy and that thwarted many attacks, stopping us in our tracks before we could turn our overwhelming possession into real chances.
Not that we didn’t have chances of course. The penalty from Pascal Struijk could have been struck better, although credit the keeper with a fine save. Sam Chambers had a couple of first-half efforts, again one well saved, and a Largie Ramazani shot was also saved by the excellent Liam Roberts.
At the end of the day, this result has little or no bearing on our season and, as long as the first XI come out firing on all cylinders after their little break, then all will be well.
Man of the match: The Millwall keeper, Liam Roberts.
KEITH INGHAM
Daniel Farke, as expected, made wholesale changes (10 in total) with Sam Chambers making his full debut in midfield. And Willy Gnonto, Largie Ramazani and Mateo Joseph were given the opportunity to impress their manager up front.
Leeds had lots of possession in the first half but the final ball wasn’t good enough and it was Millwall that went into half-time ahead.
One down at the break and the fans were disappointed. The second half followed the same pattern and Azeez and Millwall added a second before Pascal Struijk’s poor penalty was pushed onto the post by Liam Roberts. Farke brought on Manor Solomon, Ao Tanaka, Junior Firpo and Joel Piroe to no avail while Joe Rothwell brought the best out of Roberts – again.
Attention turns to the more important matter of the league on Tuesday when Leeds travel to Watford who drew with Sunderland at the weekend. I’d expect most, if not all, of the players who played in the wins over Cardiff and Coventry to return to the starting XI as none on duty on Saturday did their prospects any good.
A poor performance from most though Chambers didn’t let his manager down with a decent debut.
Man of the match: Largie Ramazani, at least the effort was there if not the end product.
MIKE GILL
In the end, 10 changes were too many. Irrespective of the overall quality of the squad, the disruption caused by the alterations was too great and the result was a disjointed side with too many missed passes and too many misunderstandings.
Particularly affected were the full-back and wing positions as Isaac Schmidt and Sam Byram were unable to provide the attacking support to Largie Ramazani and Willy Gnonto.
Deflected shots in each half from Femi Azeez took the spoils for Millwall and it has to be said that the better-organised side won the game.
When Pascal Struijk's stop-start penalty was turned away by Millwall keeper Liam Roberts, you knew that it wasn't going to happen for the Whites on this occasion.
The pain was compounded as the away supporters burst into song. This was the first time this season at Elland Road that "Leeds are Falling Apart" was sung by the visiting fans rather than by our own.
I'd be happy never to hear the dirge again as irony doesn't feel too comfortable when you let yourself down.
On a positive note, a sound debut from Sam Chambers and a great attendance. On to Watford…
Man of the match: Sam Chambers