Tbf Saints was solid too.
Leicester we beat by getting some good fortune.
But we should be taking endeavor like that to every match. Leeds turned up at Anfield on a long losing streak with a manager who might have gotten the boot and went to win the match. There is no excuse for what we did at Spurs and Newcastle.
Is that the Spurs game we could have been 2-0 up away at a top 6 team by half time?
9 out of 10 times Leeds get destroyed playing that way at a top 6 team. Indeed if Liverpool were at any level of form other than completely abysmal they would have swatted them away easily. They almost avoided defeat despite being utterly atrocious. They could play the same way and another day they beat Leeds 5-1 easily.
If you want the odd flukey win that the likes of Leeds or Bournemouth might get going gung ho at top teams then you also have to take the multiple poundings that come every time it doesn’t work. If those poundings were part of a longer transition to getting points more regularly then you’d see more of these sides winning more often at top grounds but you don’t because it doesn’t mean that, it means they got lucky once.
You just don’t seem to grasp that mentality without quality is just a one off Pyrrhic victory (and most of the time it’s not even a victory). Tony Mowbray could coach that here if that’s what you wanted but he wouldn’t win many games of football.
Quality allows you to play with intent. If you can get pace and power all over the park then you can press high and close spaces. When you have players who can all handle the ball then you can play around the opposition press. When you master both those things better than the opposition then they cede territory to you and you start dictating the game in their half on your terms. That’s why teams press City for about five minutes then seemingly give up and just cede territory and possession.
When you try and do those things without these qualities though, you can’t, and if you’re still stupid enough to do them it just becomes suicidal. Teams containing Siggurdson James Bernard Tosun Davies etc. aren’t pressing anyone anywhere on the pitch. They don’t have the pace to do it. Equally our back line before this season was one of the worst on the ball in the league so can’t play around opposition presses which means it emboldened them to keep coming onto us.
Frank’s sorted out the defence now so all those players who used to run at Michael Keane and Coleman knowing they’d force them into a mistake now don’t bother pressing Coady Patterson and Tarkowski because they’re worried they’ll get played around. Hence our possession is improving because we’re seeing more of the ball at the back.
We now need to improve the movement of the ball through the lines in midfield and also the work rate and conversion of the forward three. Then we’ll start seeing teams sitting even deeper because they won’t want to press our players for fear of being played around. At the moment it’s not happening because they know Gueye will cough up possession under pressure and Onana can’t pick a pass, whilst the two wide men can’t convert even if you let them in behind so the opposition back 4 can stay up a few yards higher.
A few more quality additions in midfield and attack and all of a sudden teams will be struggling tactically with all aspects of our team. That’s when you can go away from home and ‘be on the front foot’, because you’ve got the tools to do it. Just going gung ho because it’s more exciting for the fans more often than not just gets you an absolute caning from any competent side because you’ve still fundamentally got the exact same problems you have when sitting deep: you struggle to get the ball off better opponents, you struggle to use it effectively when you do have it, except now you’re also wide open at the back.