United Pin Leeds Back at Old Trafford
Will try to keep my posts to just one topic really this year. Should be shorter, easier to read, and will make the website look busier. Win-win-win situation.
Last year Leeds had a special type of passing profile, no team had a higher share of their passes start in zones 7 and 6 than Leeds’ 31.4% (league average=24.3% and teams at bottom were Liverpool 17% and Man City 15%).
No team then had a lower share of passes beginning in both zone 3 and zone 4…Leeds were 20th in each. They passed around a lot at the back and then surged forward with little sustained possession in the midfield (a very low share of passes in these zones came after 20+ seconds of possession).
At Old Trafford on the weekend, they had plenty of the ball (more possession than United) but never truly turned that deep possession into those surges forward. Leeds had the lowest share of their total passes coming in attacking zones since their PL debut against Liverpool and the total number was near the bottom was well.
Now you might say the Liverpool game was kind of a famous introduction to the PL, Leeds scored 3 and played some breathtaking stuff. That is true, but they took 6 shots and got destroyed 3.3-0.6 in xG. It was an unsustainable game and a few great moments covered up a shellacking. This years opener has too many similarities to that one for Leeds fans.
Struijk
When we look at players who were the least involved in dangerous possession we see Pascal Struijk stand out, just one of his 55 passes was involved in possessions that reached the attacking zones, last year 10% of his passes were in possessions reaching the attacking zone. Let’s break down why this might be and head to the film room…
and a few examples where it at least looks close to what Leeds were imagining
The first thing you notice is see how deep Struijk is…his average pass ends 77 yards from goal, further back than any game last season. His most common combo was to Ayling (16 passes) and that ends basically where it starts…they are all essentially horizontal moves from RCB to RB. Only one other outfield player (Watford CB Christian Kabasele) had their passes end further from goal than Struijk’s this weekend.
The United field position and pressure (you see a lot of Bruno Fernandes stepping up very high to pressure in these clips) pushed Leeds buildup way further back and had the goalie, CB and RB basically playing without progression.