Last Friday evening Leeds United played out a scoreless draw with Middlesbrough at Elland Road.
It certainly wasn’t the free-flowing football fans have been treated to under Marcelo Bielsa so far in the Championship campaign of 2018/19 but Tony Pulis’ sides are notoriously defensive in approach and they like to spark on the break – and given both sides had taken 13 points from the opening five matches of the year, we just cancelled each other out.
I for one see few disappointments in taking only a point from the tie as we are a work in progress and Pulis has had longer at Boro so they have greater understanding in their unit and have the positives of a Play-Off shot last season to lean on.
For Leeds, it’s the next stepping stone and proof we can mix it with the perceived bigger boys in the division and we did better dominate the key statistics in the match in terms of possession and efforts at goal overall, so even though we weren’t at our best I only see the positives as we had to show the other side of our game once again.
Social media is a different beast though and Luke Ayling took a few shots following his own performance on the day.
Ayling passes have been well off. Need to use the left hand side more. Saiz decision making poor so far. To many long balls played by us. Should try a short corner as well.
— Andy LUFC (@AndrewRichardG5) August 31, 2018
Set pieces worry me we need to keep the ball on the ground even coming in for short corners
— Tariq Jabbar (@TariqJabbar80) August 31, 2018
Hahaha he is. I love Ayling but when he’s not at the races he’s literally horrendous. The passing by him today has been like watching a 4yr old!
— Lewy Pearce (@LewyPearce) August 31, 2018
Defo mate. Immense when he’s on it but if he isn’t he’s all over the shop!
— Lewy Pearce (@LewyPearce) August 31, 2018
Luke Ayling SHOCKING tonight
— Jake Riley (@JakeyRiley) August 31, 2018
Ayling and beradi giving it away a lot #Lufc
— Martin shaw (@martinshaw27) August 31, 2018
Ayling is having a nightmare!
— Philip Taylor (@PR0PERTYLAWYER) August 31, 2018
Ayling decision making on the ball been shocking tonight some sloppy passing all round and players colliding making errors that can be avoided
— ????????????????????????????Russ???????????????????????????? (@russcausier) August 31, 2018