MOT View: 25y/o must be dropped – Three things we learned from Leeds loss to Millwall
Leeds slumped to their third defeat of the season at The Den on Saturday, dropping to fifth in the table where they have to stay for two weeks over the international break.
There’s a real sense of injustice among Leeds fans, after centre-back Gaetano Berardi was sent off in the 14th minute and a penalty awarded to Millwall. Leeds are appealing the decision.
That wasn’t the only talking point in a very frustrating afternoon for the club.
1. Berardi red must be rescinded
Let’s tackle the elephant in the room first.
The Gaetano Berardi incident wasn’t worthy of a penalty let along a red card.
Leeds are appealing so the EFL will get the chance to rescind the red card and show fans that they haven’t got an agenda against them. If the red card isn’t rescinded it’s going to be hard to persuade any Leeds fans that their feelings of paranoia are misguided.
Berardi will miss one game if the red card is upheld and that will mean Marcelo Bielsa having to dig deeper into his squad, with Leif Davis next in line if Pascal Struijk doesn’t recover from his injury. Luke Ayling and Kalvin Phillips are other options.
If there’s any justice, though, the red card will be wiped and Berardi will be free to play in the next game against Birmingham after the international break.
2. Costa needs dropping
After the game against Charlton, we said that Helder Costa must up his game. He had his worst game in a Leeds shirt on Saturday.
The 25-year-old winger offered nothing really going forward and wasn’t strong enough to deal with the Millwall players in an attacking or defending sense.
It was no coincidence that Leeds came to life when he was hooked at half-time, with Ezgjan Alioski moving up to the wing and Barry Douglas playing at left-back. Alioski scored in the 46th minute but it wasn’t enough to get the point that Leeds deserved on the balance of play.
Costa must drop back to the bench for the game against Birmingham in two weeks.
3. Problem that Bielsa must crack
It’s tough to analyse the game after Leeds had to spend over 75 minutes with just 10 men, but Bielsa’s men still enjoyed 68% possession.
However, they couldn’t convert that into chances. The numerical advantage gave Millwall the chance to pack the defence and they limited Leeds to just five shots with one on target.
Leeds only had one big chance and scored from it.
That’s the story of this season so far. There has to be a Plan B if things aren’t working and Leeds don’t seem to have the guile or creativity to do something different in games that are getting away from them. That’s not something specific to the Millwall game – it’s happened elsewhere this season.
Dominating games is one thing, winning them is another. Leeds have to be very careful that they don’t end up as the best team not to get promoted from the Championship.
In other Leeds news, Jermaine Beckford makes big claim about Leeds and names one thing that will get season flying.