Leeds are playing with a lot of confidence, and Swansea really aren't. How many passes went awry on Wednesday night? And I'm not talking about general sloppy passing, I'm talking about those absolute misses, where it's clear the players aren't on the same page and the ball ends up 15 yards from anyone.
e.g. Cullen switched the ball to nobody late on, with both Bolasie and Lowe looking at each other and then at Cullen, who had clearly expected one of them to read his intention, while Leeds get a throw-in. Fair enough on Bolasie, he's new, but I counted perhaps 3 total misses like that.
Might not sound like much, but there was once a time when Renato Sanches was the butt of the entire Premier League for passing to an advertising hoarding, and that happened once in the seven years Swansea were in the big league. That kind of thing is happening multiple times per game atm. Perhaps not to that extent, but near enough. The players are not on the same page, and it looks like half the team clearly has a different idea of the expected tactical set-up to the other half.
No wonder these players lack confidence. A manager's first and singularly most important job is to unite the dressing room and make the players believe they are world-beaters. A confident team plays with freedom and its players read the game situation and each other well enough to make the right decisions more often than not, so the tactics don't need to be complicated. Just a few core principles and a basic shape. That's what Leeds have going on.
It's really hard to back Duff when the players are making those kind of mistakes this far into a season. Also, Leeds scored their 3rd goal in the 61st minute, yet Duff didn't make any changes until the 70th. What did he think was going to happen in those 9 minutes to justify holding off on the subs? The game was done. Swansea hadn't had one meaningful attack in the second half. Did he really think that third goal was going to inspire them to a comeback in a way he obviously can't?
The moment that third Leeds goal goes in, he should have pulled Pato, Fulton and Yates (the first two - who played well - to keep them fresh for the next game, and Yates because he'd done nothing). He could have learned so much over the last half hour by making some significant changes and seeing what could happen (Cullen at 9 would be a start). At least he'd have made use of the defeat. Instead, he sat on his hands and wasted 9 minutes for absolutely no reason I can fathom.
Duff's team are following his example - standing around looking bemused for most of the match and then doing too little, too late. I don't understand how a manager who preaches high-intensity can be so passive.
