Nat
Ullevaal Stadion
(Oslo)
(Oslo)
-Emeran
67 Hugill 81
Ayling and Savage captained
their respective sides in the second-half. Drameh, the only
starting player to re-emerge after the interval, switched to
left-back.
Nat
LNER Community
Stadium
(York City)
Stadium
(York City)
-Ben
Yedder 60p
Volland 78
Volland 78
•●Ben Yedder 60
Ayling, Bamford (Leeds) and
Ben Yedder (Monaco) were replacement captains as the previous
incumbents were substituted. The many changes also led to
Struijk moving to left centre-back for the second-half. Les
Monégasques had to play with ten men briefly when Aguilar was
led away nursing a shoulder injury in the 70th minute; Magassa
belatedly replacing him when the play was paused for a Leeds
free-kick.
Nat
Pirelli Stadium
(Burton Albion)
(Burton Albion)
-Bamford
66 Poveda 85
At half-time, Shackleton
moved to right-back with Gray on at defensive midfield. Poveda
was initially a direct replacement for Sinisterra on the wing
but moved inside when a clutch of substitutions were made
immediately after the opening goal, Gnonto taking over on the
right. Goalscorer Bamford took the captain's armband before
realising that he was following Cooper off the pitch at this
juncture, Struijk ultimately assuming the honour. Forest named
Scott McKenna in their starting line-up but he succumbed to
illness in the warm-up. His replacement, Freuler, was then one
of only three players in red to be given the whole ninety
minutes. Another of these, Williams, swapped wings to
accommodate Aurier in the 62nd minute - one of six incoming subs
that saw a switch to 4-3-3. The midfield was now
Scarpa/Freuler/Aguilera, while Hwang went to the right with
Chris Wood as centre-forward.
-Ayling
38
Leeds' substitutions were
like-for-like save for the minor adjustment of Struijk to left
centre-back when Cresswell replaced Cooper. In contrast, Hearts
seemed to reshuffle to more of a 4-2-3-1 when they went to their
bench for the first time. Possibly this was to encourage
Shankland to stay high as he had often been dropping deep to
this point. Cochrane came on in central midfield leading to
Niewenhof pushing further forward and Forrest moving out to the
right. The only goal was reported as a Kent own goal in some
quarters, the Jambos' new defensive signing having
unsuccessfully attempted to clear Ayling's shot off the line. A
hamstring injury forced Bamford off (in the same break of play
in which the hosts brought on Halliday) shortly after he had
inherited the captain's armband which accompanied him to the
dressing room. So United did not visibly have a leader on the
pitch for the closing minutes, though likely it would have been
Struijk. Numerologists will have noted that Hearts named two
number 12s among their subs though as this included an unused
goalkeeper, no confusion was likely to accrue. Meanwhile
Cresswell was allocated the number 5 shirt, having worn his old
squad number of 35 in previous pre-season games.
-Cooper 49
Summerville 90+5
Bowler 23 Ugbo 39
Summerville 90+5
Bowler 23 Ugbo 39
The first meaningful viewing
of Farkeball saw the expected 4-2-3-1 with an overlapping Ayling
and an underlapping Hjelde turning it into almost a 2-2-5-1 with
Leeds dominating possession. The fluidity of the attacking
quartet was most evidenced by Gnonto and Summerville switching
positions, including for a period coinciding with Cardiff's
opening goal when the Italian international was covering for his
limping colleague. It may also have contributed to United being
so open on their right flank in that moment. Inexplicably
turning round two goals down, as per January's cup-tie against
the Bluebirds, the second half became almost total attack
against defence. Substitutions modified the home side's
spearhead to Gelhardt supported by (R-L) Poveda, Summerville and
Sinisterra. The final dramatic push was to go 4-1-4-1 with
Gelhardt outside Poveda on the right and Perkins up top. For
Cardiff, Méïté played on the right meaning that Bowler switched
wings. Meanwhile Ramsey and Wintle were replacement captains
after Ralls was forced off early. His opposite number, Liam
Cooper, suffered a serious foot injury in the act of scoring and
a stretcher had to be called for. New timekeeping regulations
would have meant the referee adding on over two minutes for that
delay alone before play resumed with Leeds temporarily
short-handed. Until Cresswell came on, Ampadu filled in at the
back. Some time later an armband was found to confirm Ayling as
the acting captain.
-Gelhardt 52 Struijk
58
Perry 28
Perry 28
A goal down at half-time,
Daniel Farke opted to use two of his subs and restore the
defensive midfield partnership of Gray and Ampadu. Their
first-half positions were filled by Poveda and the incoming
Struijk respectively, with Shackleton moving to right-wing. Late
on Sinisterra came on in the hole (then became the most advanced
attacker when Gelhardt went off), Drameh was unusually deployed
at left-wing and Bate had a brief cameo as an attacking
midfielder. For the visitors, Udoh replaced Bowman before the
restart after the winning goal with Flanagan taking over as the
Shrews' captain. The comeback win was overshadowed somewhat when
Farke revealed that Gnonto was not injured or rested, simply
"unavailable".
-Jutkiewicz
90+1p
•●Jutkiewicz 90+1
Nothing confirms you are
back in the Championship better than losing to a late penalty at
Birmingham after an abysmal game of football. The home fans at
least had the presence of new investor and NFL legend, Tom
Brady, to remember the day by. For the Leeds diehards, there was
only frustration at the absence of Gnonto and Sinisterra and the
amount of work left to be done on the post-relegation squad
rebuild. To emphasise the fact, the bench was a player light
even with two reserve goalkeepers in the travelling party.
Meanwhile Joe Rodon was thrown on in injury-time for a debut as
an emergency centre-forward.
-Ayling 72
Thomas-Asante 52
Thomas-Asante 52
Leeds' numbers were even
more depleted than against Birmingham with the loss of Hjelde
(concussion) and Poveda (adductor strain) and only Greenwood
returning to the squad. West Brom took the lead when Molumby's
strike was deflected past Meslier by the hand of Thomas-Asante;
the questionable legality of the final touch making it
surprising that the goal was taken off the Irish midfielder, who
celebrated effusively including cupping his ears to the South
Stand. Albion protected their lead by withdrawing Wallace into
more of a midfield role. At 1-1 they were still 5-4-1 but with
Wallace or Sarmiento pushing forward to press, depending on
which side the ball was. With their final substitutions, they
changed to 4-2-3-1 with Chalobah to the right of Molumby in
midfield, and Gardner-Hickman between Phillips and Sarmiento in
the three behind Maja. The positional switch for Phillips meant
that Townsend, now wearing the captain's armband, went to
left-back.
-Rutter 10 Gnonto 14
Piroe 19 Sinisterra 75
Rodon 7 og
Broadhead 45+7
Chaplin 90+7
Piroe 19 Sinisterra 75
Rodon 7 og
Broadhead 45+7
Chaplin 90+7
A goal apiece for Leeds'
front four including firsts for Rutter and debutant Piroe, with
Gnonto and Sinisterra also on target to mark their
re-integration into the side. Surprisingly Piroe was generally
more withdrawn than Rutter, although they combined in the press
to give the 4-4-2 shape that was widely reported. The
injury-time substitutions were reversed in that Cresswell was
really the replacement for Ayling at right-back with Gyabi
slotting into Piroe's No.10 position. Struijk assumed the
captaincy at this point. Ipswich used their changes to reshuffle
their attacking midfield line, firstly to
Burns/Hutchinson/Chaplin and then to Hutchinson/Harness/Chaplin.
-LOST
ON PENS 8-9
Struijk 76
Smith 34
Struijk 76
Smith 34
At half-time Salford moved
the pacy Bolton to right-back to mark Gnonto, with McLennan
taking over at right midfield. Bolton later took on a third
position, going to left-back when Garbutt went off. Ashley was
now the other full-back with Lund brought on to play behind the
strikers.
Struijk was captain when
Ayling went off. For Wednesday, Iorfa was brought on at right
wing-back with Paterson pushing forward into the space that
Gregory had been occupying.
-Piroe 15, 77 Rutter
81
Summerville and Gnonto
swapped wings for the last quarter hour of the first-half. Near
the end of the game it looked like there was a slight shift to
4-1-4-1. Certainly Gruev seemed to be signalling 'one behind
two' to Ampadu as he came on for his debut, though it hardly
mattered by this stage.
1■■Rodon 60
Put notes here.
-Piroe 67 Byram 70
Anthony 89
Anthony 89
Watford Coach Valérian
Ismaël took drastic action at half-time to try and get a
foothold in a game dominated by Leeds with a triple substitution
and a formation change. Now 3-1-4-2, they lined up as Bachmann;
Sierralta, Porteous, Hoedt; Kayembe; Andrews, Louza,
Dele-Bashiru, Lewis; Bayo, Rajović.