Phil Hay slams Leeds United defence for having ‘no organisation’ in first half incident v Southampton
Phil Hay was critical of the Leeds United defence for having “no organisation” as they fell behind to Southampton early in the first half of their Championship clash on Saturday (30 September).
The Whites fell behind after less than two minutes at St Mary’s when Adam Armstrong drifted behind the backline before lifting a strike over Illan Meslier from a tight angle and Daniel Farke’s side were absolutely reeling by half-time having fallen 3-0 behind.
Armstrong managed to find space behind Liam Cooper as the defender stepped up in an attempt to play the forward offside, but Sam Byram had stayed deeper and ensured the linesman’s flag stayed down.
Hay slammed the defence’s work, taking to Twitter (30 September) to say: “Adam Armstrong with the finish, a neat chip over Meslier from an angle. Through ball from Walkers-Peters found him behind the defence – very tight call on offside but no flag.
“No organisation for the offside trap as Armstrong went through behind Cooper, defence didn’t move as one. Good finish and there goes the run of clean sheets, just like that.”
Disorganised
Farke decided to pick an unchanged side against Southampton given Leeds’ impressive performance against Watford last time out and although that decision was fair, it may not have been the correct call.
With Joe Rodon watching on from the sidelines, you have to wonder if the Whites would have been better off with the Tottenham loanee at the heart of their defence rather than Cooper, who didn’t seem to have any idea where Armstrong was behind him.
Cooper is a very good defender, but he did have a few shaky moments during the first half at St Mary’s and given Rodon’s impressive start to the season, he surely would have been the better pick to start against Russell Martin’s side.
To give Southampton credit, the ball from Kyle Walker-Peters was inch perfect and the run from Armstrong seemingly couldn’t have been timed much better. But Farke would have hoped that the pass would that the pass had been stopped at the source instead.
In other Leeds United news, Gus Poyet has claimed that Joel Piroe could fire Leeds to promotion