Swarms of Leeds United fans have been reacting on social media, after Wigan Athletic boss Paul Cook claimed he knew that set-pieces would be key to the result during Saturday’s encounter at Elland Road.
The Latics travelled to West Yorkshire over the weekend mired in a relegation fight, with basement boys Luton Town the only second-tier side to have won on fewer occasions over the opening 29 games of the season.
Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites, on the other hand, were sitting at the top of the table with two more wins than any other side in the division, having won 16 matches with the third-most lethal offence boasting 46 goals.
It was not Bielsa’s Whites who triumphed on Saturday, though, as a 59th-minute own goal from Pablo Hernandez gifted Paul Cook’s Wigan the win, despite the Latics having 53% less of the ball than we, taking 14 fewer shots and completing 388 fewer passes, per WhoScored data.
Hernandez’s own goal came when Joe Williams’ corner flicked off the Spanish playmaker and dipped under the bar, out of reach of Kiko Casilla as the former Real Madrid man was put under intense pressure on his line.
Can Bielsa stop the team conceding from corners?
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The goal was the eleventh we have now conceded from a set-piece (excluding penalties) this league season, and Cook has claimed that he set his side out to take advantage of our inferior physical presence.
“I thought set-pieces were going to be important for us today,” Cook said, via quotes by the Yorkshire Evening Post. “We worked on them in the week, we felt we had a physicality advantage.”
Here are some of the messages shared as fans reacted to Cook’s claim…
This speaks volumes about Kiko and Bamford.
— Peter (@PeteLeeds2) February 2, 2020
Too many people on this thread missing the point, he isn’t saying he knew that Pablo would head the ball into his own net he’s saying that he’s aware we’re weak at corners we aren’t organised in that area and our height and strength are much less than that of most teams
— Post Mix Lemonade (@MMMMMNoodleSoup) February 2, 2020
Shockingly bad
— Jon Hughes (@Crusty_Costa) February 2, 2020
Oh aye, you meant to clip the player 10 yards away to loop into the top corner? Genius.
— Froliver (@froliver_yorks) February 2, 2020
Paul Cook seems a decent bloke to be fair.
— Andy Dent 💙💛 (@Thedentsmaster) February 2, 2020
I didn’t actually remember them having any shots on target from their corners? The one they scored was that bad it hit the first man who was 10 yards away but somehow went in, hardly something you can practice?
— Alistair Johnson (@alijohnson447) February 2, 2020
Said every single manager in the championship against Leeds 😭
— Marc Burton (@bronk_21) February 2, 2020
I’m sure they practiced clipping the head of the defender and the ball looping in, over and over again 😂
— Barry Robinson (@R0BB01981) February 2, 2020
This is so sad.
— utlokaliserad (@utlokaliserad1) February 2, 2020