Speaking on his podcast, Phil Hay has been speaking about Leeds’ set-piece record and the lack of aerial prowess in this Leeds team.
Leeds have really struggled when it comes to defending set-pieces this season. They’ve conceded from countless corners and they’ve looked vulnerable in almost every game.
However, Hay did note that since the arrival of Jesse Marsch things have looked slightly different, while he also excused the Whites’ struggles this season slightly due to the absence of Liam Cooper, who, he claims, Marcelo Bielsa always believed to be the best header of the ball at Leeds.
What’s been said?
Hay was speaking about Leeds’ defending from set plays.
“It looked more zonal to me. I need to have a good look at the set-pieces, it looked less man-to-man to me, and one of the issues with that had been that Leeds weren’t a big powerful team, especially without Cooper, who Bielsa always considered to be the best header of the ball, so it’s been difficult to compete with a van Dijk or a Maguire who have a lot of aerial power,” Hay said.
Worrying
The fact that Bielsa thought Cooper was his strongest aerial presence is worrying in itself.
According to the Premier League’s website, Cooper stands at just 180cm, which equates to around 6ft, and that’s not very tall for a centre-half.
Yes, he has a good leap, but he lost 38 per cent of his aerial duels last season, so it’s no surprise to see Leeds struggling from set-plays.
Leeds are brilliant physically when it comes to stamina, energy and strength, but they aren’t the best in the air.
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