Garry Monk told LUTV that his side produced a decent performance against Cardiff City, but does he need to have a closer look at his tactics?

Elland Road was buzzing with excitement before this game, and the anticipation had been building for some time on the back of the good run that has taken us into the play-off positions. But what a let-down this was for the bumper crowd of 31,516. On paper this was the start of a run of relatively easy fixtures where we could make amends for the Huddersfield defeat, but it didn’t work out that way.

For most of the game Leeds dominated the possession against a well-organised Neil Warnock side that was content to sit back and frustrate us, in the knowledge that a draw would be a good result as they tried to put some more distance between themselves and the bottom three.

As well as Warnock we were up against another old boy in the shape of Sol Bamba, but unfortunately he was back to being the commanding rock of a central defender of his early Leeds days, rather than the complete liability we saw later, who would get us into trouble with amazingly bad balls out of defence. And with Wood as the lone striker Leeds never looked likely to expose his chronic lack of pace.

Our best effort of the first half was a free kick that Wood got past the Cardiff wall, but without the pace to cause too much trouble for McGregor. Otherwise our leading scorer was a frustrated and isolated figure, outnumbered by Cardiff defenders. He needed better service, but Hernandez was the only one who ever looked likely to break through, and Cardiff were always very quick to deny him space.

At the other end Halford was left with a free header, but on this occasion Green got us out of trouble with a fine save. The other significant incident of the half was Bridcutt’s first yellow card for dissent, after a fussy referee called a foul throw because Ayling stole a few yards down the touchline, but allowed Cardiff to get away with the same thing when the throw was retaken.

At half time we thought that it would only be a matter of time before we would break Cardiff down, but it was the visitors who took the lead in the 53rd minute. Once again our marking was at fault, and this time the visitors took advantage, with Morrison heading past Green from a free kick. We were clearly missing Pontus Jansson, who had called in sick on the morning of the game.

We continued to press forward without ever looking like we were going to score, but Cardiff took advantage of the space at the back to score a second in the 71st minute. Icelandic beardy Gunnarsson (he of the long throw who tormented England in that infamous Euro 16 game) went past Ayling and pulled the ball back to the unmarked Zohore, who accepted the invitation to smash the ball into the corner.

After that Monk tried a few changes to give us a bit more impetus up front, with Roofe and Doukara coming on, but it was all too little too late. We had a couple of half-chances, the best of them coming when Roofe turned and forced McGregor into a save, but Cardiff were able to play out the remaining time fairly comfortably.

And to make matters worse, Bridcutt picked up his second yellow for a fairly innocuous foul in the closing minutes. Garry Monk quite rightly blamed the fussy referee for this dismissal when interviewed for the Channel 5 highlights, but it came too late in the game to have any bearing on the result.

And our head coach told LUTV “We created some good situations in the game, but we weren’t clinical enough in the final third with our final ball. Teams will come here between now and the end of the season, they will work in a real solid block, be hard to break down, slow things down and try to frustrate us.”

“The key is that you don’t make mistakes, we made two mistakes, it cost us and it was an uphill battle from there. I thought we started the second half very well and their first goal came against the run of play. “We had a bit more zip and a bit more tempo, but that first goal put us on the back-foot and they capitalised on our mistake.

“I’m not overly disappointed with the performance, I am disappointed with the result, but this was something new for the group, especially at Elland Road and we are going to have to work on this. On Tuesday we have to show a reaction and we are all determined to do that."

But if Monk wasn’t disappointed by the performance, then he’s probably in a small minority of those inside Elland Road yesterday. He’s right that more teams will start coming to Leeds will defend, as the higher we get in the table the more our visitors will start to see a draw at Elland Road as a good result.

Although his formation of playing only one up front might work well in away games and at home to teams who will have a go at us (e.g. Derby) it can leave Wood very isolated against sides who sit deep and are very organised in their defensive play. Whilst an extra midfield player is needed to give the back four some protection in some game, that isn’t such a priority against defensive teams.

Against the likes of Cardiff at Elland Road we can’t rely on finding space on the break, and could really do with a second striker to break them down. So Doukara should start alongside Wood, or maybe even Antonsson. The Swede hasn’t had much of a chance so far, as whenever he’s had a game so far he’s been played as a lone striker, which doesn’t suit him. I’d like to see what he can do alongside Wood.

So Monk really has to be more imaginative in his tactics, and not keep using the same plan in all circumstances. It’s a short time to turn things around before the next game, when we will look for the determined reaction Monk has promised against Bristol City. The Robins took a surprise 3-0 lead at Derby yesterday, only to draw 3-3, so we can hope they won’t show the same defensive qualities as Cardiff.

It’s doubtful that Jansson will have recovered from illness in time, and of course Bridcutt will also be missing as he serves a one match ban. But whatever Leeds side takes the field, we will need three points to get our season back on track. A few weeks ago it seemed a formality that we would at least get a place in the play-offs, but now we look anxiously over our shoulder and see a rejuvenated Norwich only four points behind us in seventh.

In many ways yesterday’s game was far more worrying than the defeats at Huddersfield and Barnsley, but we’ll just have to hope that last few weeks have been just a blip rather than the start of a slide. But if we are going to get back to our former consistency, then Garry Monk might have to start to be a little less predictable in his tactics.

Photo: Action Images

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