Leeds United lost at Charlton Athletic this afternoon.
Lee Bowyer has made quite an interesting observation about Leeds United.
Bowyer’s Charlton Athletic side knocked the Whites off top spot in the Championship with a 1-0 victory at The Valley this afternoon.
In doing so, the Addicks moved level on points with Leeds in the table and extended the Londoners’ brilliant start to the season since being promoted in May.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side have been struggling as of late after only winning one of their last four games across all competitions, but Bowyer insists that his pre-match preparations were a leading factor in the win.
The former United midfielder has revealed to Charlton’s official website that he noticed that Leeds tend to struggle against teams that play with a three-man defence.
“I work hard, I watched a lot of Leeds games, like I do every other team and I recognised that they struggle against teams that play with three at the back. They don’t create half as many chances as they do against teams that play with four at the back.
“My intention was to start with a back four at the beginning and really try and get after them and disturb them if you like and that seemed to work but I always knew that after 20 minutes we was going to go back to a back three and then maybe try and soak up a bit of pressure and hit them on the break. We did that and all my plans worked today.”
Leeds didn’t have a huge amount of chances, with Jack Harrison and Helder Costa posting disappointing displays which directly affected what Patrick Bamford and Eddie Nketiah had to feed off through the middle.
Would Bielsa’s side have fared better had Bowyer continued with a back four? We’ll never know, but what we do know is that the Yorkshire outfit struggled against Charlton and therefore credit has to go to their legendary midfielder.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
