Leeds United defence must rethink positional sense and different test awaits against Burnley - Dom Matteo

But I was still shocked with the way Leeds got beat at Manchester United on Sunday because you just don’t expect to get beat by that many.

I know there were no fans but I have been on the end of a few heavy defeats myself as a player and it’s hard to bounce back from that so now it’s about the reaction after a really bad defeat.

Manchester United are obviously a good side but we should have done better and we just don’t stay in games long enough.

The game was over after half an hour and we can’t really be putting ourselves in that position.

Having no fans is a factor but at some point we have to realise that we have to defend better in certain areas.

People will probably say that I am always going on about the defensive side of it but we shipped in six goals and we just looked too open.

That’s the way that Bielsa plays, he goes for it, but against the better opposition and players who have got a lot of pace we have to find a way of playing against them.

If not, we are just going to get punished.

On a big massive pitch like the one at Old Trafford, I knew exactly how that game was going to go if we didn’t do things right and didn’t do the basics well.

If we didn’t get tight, didn’t get people up to the ball and didn’t defend the right areas then that was what was always going to happen because we are not good at defending against pace which we need to improve on quickly.

I don’t know if some of the defenders are scared of that pace.

We have all been there where you are facing a really quick player. But if that’s the case then you have got to adjust.

Say you are up against Marcus Rashford or Anthony Martial, guys who have got a lot of pace, then it’s all about your positional sense.

You’ve got to take up good positions against them and we just didn’t do it at all against Manchester United.

We were taking up bad areas, giving them too much of the ball and allowing them to take space.

Overall I was disappointed with how we actually played.

It might be a season where we win one and lose one, win one and lose one, it could be like that.

The club is building so it’s not exactly the end of the world but we still need to improve defensively.

I know we have had injuries in those areas but we can’t always give it as an excuse.

When we do get those defenders back such as Diego Llorente and Robin Koch then we will be a better side.

But at the moment we have to go with what we have and it was a poor performance against Manchester United being brutally honest.

Sunday’s hosting of Burnley and Tuesday’s trip to West Brom are next and both games are huge.

These are the games at the start of the season that you have to highlight. I don’t know Bielsa’s style and whether he highlights games like that.

But when I was at Blackburn Rovers for instance who were probably very similar to where Leeds are at the moment we used to group certain games together such as these next two games.

We would group them together and say for example we need at least four points from these next two games.

Mark Hughes would sometimes group three or four games together.

He would say there are 12 points available in these next four games, we need to get say a minimum of seven points but let’s aim for nine. That’s how we looked at it because you had to be realistic and sometimes it’s good to have a little target like that.

These next two games for Leeds are massive and they have to really take advantage of the weaknesses that these two teams have.

I think they will manage to do that but there are no easy games in the Premier League and that’s one that we have got to really grasp and also let’s not go all guns blazing.

Burnley are first who have had some good results of late and we don’t even have to think about the style that they are going to play.

We know the players they have got and we know what they like to do when they get on the ball.

They are going to be putting it forward early.

They are going to be crossing balls into the box and they are going to be looking to take advantage of all the weaknesses that Sean Dyche will see in Leeds and we have got to be really physical against them.

The one thing Burnley are is physical and Sean Dyche doesn’t take any messing about. He will have them at it.

The West Brom game then comes two days later so let’s hope we can go into it full of confidence and try and get back to back to wins to push us back up the table.

I think Leeds will be fine this season, I genuinely believe they will be okay. But we have just got to stop shipping these really soft goals.

Dominic Matteo's column, in association with Data Facilities.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/patrick-bamford-says-leeds-uniteds-players-will-never-be-questioning-marcelo-bielsas-approach-3076017

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/yorkshire-evening-post-launch-leeds-united-only-digital-subscription-ahead-premier-league-campaign-2967964

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Thank you Laura Collins