A contender for ‘worst game of the season’ played out at Elland Road on Saturday night.
In a great evening for the defenders, Brentford and Leeds United failed even to hit 1.0 expected goals (xG) combined, let alone one side doing it.
Here are our Scout Notes from Saturday’s late, late game.
WHY DANGO WAS BENCHED
One of the most-owned attackers involved in this fixture didn’t even start.
Dango Ouattara (£6.0m) was named among the substitutes, with centre-half Ethan Pinnock (£4.2m) coming in.
A deliberate system change to match Leeds, with Dango the fall guy?
Not according to Keith Andrews, who said that Dango was benched because of a knock and that the formation tweak only came about because of it.
“A hard-fought, hard-earned, well-deserved point. I think it’s fair to say we were stretched tonight, coming into the game. It’s been a slightly disrupted week, a couple of knocks. Dango, Thursday in training, took a knock, was a doubt.
“It was difficult, really, to prepare in a really concise way. The players, I have to say, were absolutely amazing in how they dealt with the slight change of what we planned and how we went about things.
“We had one day training it, really.” – Keith Andrews on Dango Ouattara and the change in formation
THIAGO BECOMES THE THIRD FORWARD TO BAG DEFCON POINTS
This game in one statistic: a whopping 16 of the 22 starters returned four or more points – and not one of them delivered an attacking return.
The 5-3-2 set-ups of both sides ensured two goalkeepers and 10 defenders walked away with at least clean sheet points.
Three midfielders banked defensive contribution (DefCon) points, too.
And, for only the seventh time this season, a forward did likewise.
Igor Thiago (£7.3m) joined Armando Broja (£5.2m) and five-time DefCon deliverer Jarrod Bowen (£7.5m) in the select club on Saturday.
Above: Players who hit the DefCon threshold in Brentford v Leeds
SERIOUSLY, NOTHING HAPPENED
It’s a struggle to think of anything of note to report from this match.
Caoimhin Kelleher (£4.6m) walked away with the easiest nine-point haul you could imagine. The stats column will say he made four stops, but three of them were from Leeds efforts taken outside the box and routine in nature. The other was when he challenged Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.6m) for a cross, with both striker and ‘keeper getting touches of the ball at about the same time – and Opta deeming it to be a save.
As for Karl Darlow (£3.9m), he was even less troubled. Two saves from headers from set-piece situations, again straightforward.
Returning back to Thiago, he had one off-target shot after bulldozing his way to the edge of the area. He was otherwise excellent, and if anyone can ‘deserve’ DefCon points, it was him for his off-the-ball efforts.
You’d expect Brentford to be a bit more adventurous on home soil in Gameweek 32, with not just Dango fit to start but also arch-creator Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.6m). The Dane failed to recover from a knock in time to feature at Elland Road.
Leeds are a bit more of a worry, attacking-wise. They’ve now failed to score in four straight Premier League matches. Calvert-Lewin is misfiring at present, as he often does outside of the annual purple patches.
This was a better advert for their defence, at least. Darlow and Joe Rodon (£3.9m) will be solid pick-ups for the run-in, especially once Gameweek 32 is out of the way:
“We are not a side that cuts teams to pieces due to our individual quality. We have to be honest. We have to bring our physicality. Overall, this is more or less how you have to behave in a relegation battle: be rock solid, defend really well, show good mentality.” – Daniel Farke
Jaka Bijol (£3.9m) banked DefCon points for the fifth time in six starts; the problem with him is that you’re never quite sure if he’s going to be as completely nailed as Rodon.
