Putting the emotional frustration, and obviously the damage it's done etc, it's got to be said - what a game of football that was.
I'll do the decisions first. Penalty - I think it's one, but can understand why he's not given it in real time. However he should 100% be told to go and have a second look, and in doing so he gives it, there's no doubt.
On their fourth. Well I've only seen it twice and as I'm in a minority of two I won't rule out the possibility that I'm wrong*, but I don't think it's a foul. Yes, he has a little tug of his shirt but it doesn't come close to effecting Adama's momentum, it was very much a choice to stop playing. If we're having free kicks for every tiny shirt pull, hand on the shoulder or whatever the game will never get going, there'll be an extra 30 free kicks a game. There was nothing in it.
Onto the performance...well, if you're shit in both boxes, then you're always going to be flirting with danger. We look like conceding almost every time we're attacked. Rodrygo should've scored when he went through one on one, there was Gomes clearing one off the line, and all four of the goals were very, very avoidable.
And as well as not being able to defend, they absolutely shit themselves when they're pressed in possession. I don't get it, because on the face of things all four of them are technically decent footballers, but the rushed, panicked way they pass under pressure is a bit embarrassing tbh. I don't know whether it's midfielders not finding intelligent enough passing lanes or just a total lack of composure, but most of the time it just looks so classless when compared to teams like Brighton, Brentford or Fulham. I think the manager has to ask himself some questions there because it's a very coachable way of playing with decent footballing defenders.
We had more chances than usual today - Adama was excellent - but again I don't think we were missing sitter after sitter. The Kilman cross and the Sarabia one were golden chances, but generally we just don't create the quality of chances. A good bit of football, striker in a yard of space, and clinical finish...fuck knows the last time we scored a goal like that. They always seem scrappy, deflections or bobbles or defensive errors, and so rarely just as a result of good football that's hard to defend against.
I don't know what our chance creating style is supposed to be, how we're trying to play. I know Lop is a good manager, you don't get the jobs he's had and win what he's won without being it. But stylistically I don't know what he's trying to do, and he changes things so often it must be confusing for the players too. I'm not excusing them - I'd happily see 80% of them fuck off, in the Summer - but I do think he just needs to pick an eleven and stick to it to see if they can build up some confidence, consistency and chemistry.
Leeds stopped playing at 1-0, and we asked them very few questions until we'll into the second half, despite having the best of the ball and the territory, and that's not good enough. We just don't know what to do with the football.
Won't bother with ratings. Adama was excellent, Neves was good, and everybody else was somewhere between shit and meh.
*though tbf the chances of such titans of the game as me and Deutsch *both* being wrong on something are pretty slim
