Gabby Agbonlahor has once again criticised Leeds United’s approach to games on talkSPORT and urged them to ‘look at Aston Villa’.
The former Premier League striker thinks Leeds are being ‘naïve’ in their approach and made it clear to them that this isn’t ‘six-a-side’.
Leeds suffered a 3-0 defeat at Spurs over the weekend, whilst Aston Villa fell to a 2-1 loss against Manchester United following a controversial penalty decision.
Agbonlahor admitted that he does ‘enjoy watching’ Leeds United’s forward-thinking approach, but they have to change, as he used Villa as an example.
“I think it’s a bit naïve,” said Agbonlahor. “I understand. I do enjoy watching Leeds and the attacking football that they play.
“But look at Aston Villa against Manchester United. Playing attacking football, but with a right balance of defensive responsibilities as well.
“This isn’t six-a-side where you just go out and your centre-halves go into midfield and do one-twos like they were doing against Tottenham. You are playing against a top team with world-class forward players. You don’t do it. You mix it up and when you are playing against a top, top team you be a bit more cautious.
“It’s not a hard switch to do. Like most teams do. Manchester, Liverpool, Everton, Leicester will change their tactics in who they are playing against. There is no harm in it.”
Only 19th-placed West Brom (39) have conceded more goals than Leeds (33) at this moment in time, with the two promoted sides clearly finding the defensive side of the game tough to deal with.
But Leeds will point towards their attack where they have scored 30 goals, with only Chelsea and the current Premier League’s top three only better than them in that department.
Either way, on one hand, Spurs and Jose Mourinho would be criticised for their so-called defensive approach, whilst Bielsa continually gets stick for being too attack-minded.
In truth, only the teams charging near the front can have that near-on perfect balance and even Liverpool are struggling with that this term.
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